Podcasts about cloud stories

Porting over a few episodes from The True Hippie Chronicles Podcast. In this episode, a reading from my recently completed memoir, The Gentlemanly Art of Spanking, 'Cloud Stories, Part One.'

Part two of "Cloud Stories" from my memoir, "The Gentlemanly Art of Spanking ~ The Rise and Fall of the HoneyBun Empire; Riding the Wild Bubble—Berkeley To Frisco To Hollywood To Vegas & Back; Intimations Of Immortality On The Technicolor Lam, Sober."

The big news is I'm rebranding the Cloud Stories podcast to the Accounting Apps podcast (fingers crossed) In this episode, I talk about . . . Summer adventures with family and Chester the Border Collie in Elanora and Crows Nest Catching up on admin backlog and office makeover Website update with recent photos and videos Rebranding Cloud Stories podcast to Accounting Apps podcast Introducing advertising to the newsletter and podcast Clarification on ACCA Global Council election results Embracing "StoryTeller" as the theme for the year Upcoming speaking engagements in Birmingham and Cairns Preview of the next episode with David Boyar, CEO of ChangeGPS Contact details: Accounting Apps newsletter: http://HeatherSmithAU.COM Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/  YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting  X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU   

2023 has been a brilliant technicolour year for me, and I'm delighted to end it on yet another high, hitting 20 000 podcast episode downloads during the year. As an accountant I do like a nice round number.  Thank you to the many listeners, especially those who hit the subscribe button. Thank you to the many guests who graciously share their time with me on the Cloud Stories podcast over the last year.  Thank you to the conference organisers for providing me with the opportunity to meet fascinating individuals and enabling me to share knowledge with our accounting & bookkeeping community. The Cloud Stories Wrap of 2023 is as an opportunity to answer the following questions:   Which accounting technologies saw the most significant advancements this year? What were the top 5 most popular episodes of 20 How did the podcast evolve over the past year? What were the biggest challenges faced in podcasting about accounting technology in 2023? What feedback from listeners surprised you the most? What was the most unexpected topic or guest you had in 2023? What was the most controversial topic discussed on the podcast?  How do you plan to evolve the podcast in the coming year? What advice would you give to someone starting a podcast in the accounting technology niche? How did you celebrate reaching 20,000 downloads? What are your goals for the podcast in 2024?   Wishing you all health and happiness as we head into 2024. Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http://HeatherSmithAU.COM Connect with Heather Smith here https://www.linkedin.com/in/heathersmithau/ 

Michael Wood truly lives and breathes the title entrepreneur. Currently he's Founder & CEO of Translucent. His LinkedIn profile reveals he's also the founder of 4 other companies. The company that you're likely to know him from is Receipt Bank. Michael was the original co-founder and was there till April 2021, when it was acquired by private equity group HgCapital. Please be aware I strategically partner with Translucent. I was an early adopter of Receipt Bank, and also am an early adopter of Translucent. I'm sure you will find this interview enlightening! In this episode, we talk about . . . Michael's journey from pursuing a Bachelor of Science in zoology to founding a marketing and growth consultancy firm, Tweed London. The origins and evolution of Receipt Bank, a digital receipt management platform.  The impact of Xero's API on the accounting industry.  Michael discusses how his experience at Receipt Bank led to the launch of Translucent, a solution for multi-entity businesses to manage their accounting setup. How Translucent is using a compound startup approach to build multiple apps within one platform, aiming to launch four apps per year. Michael explains that Translucent is like a data warehouse, providing a single source of truth for users to easily search and find data across all their entities. Michael discusses upcoming features for their financial management platform, including bank consolidation and intercompany loans. The future of accounting, globalisation, and the need for a more unified toolset. Michael shares his views on the future of accounting and technology industry through 2030, emphasising the value of data and its journey towards maximisation. Michael highlights the increasing importance of data in the industry, and how firms and finance departments will need to surf the technology wave to keep up. Michael Wood : https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelwood/ Translucent : https://translucent.app/  Heather Smith : https://www.linkedin.com/in/heathersmithau/  If you enjoyed this podcast please share it with someone else who you think would benefit from it. For in-depth discussions about the ecosystem, do join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook. I recommend subscribing to the Accounting Apps newsletter for a comprehensive insight into the ecosystem space, accessible at HeatherSmithAU.COM. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast. I'm Heather Smith, and this has been the Cloud Stories podcast.

Xero co-founder Philip Fierlinger shares the story behind building one of the world's most successful accounting platforms, Xero He discusses his early inspiration from car dashboards and the gamification of bank reconciliations. Fierlinger also reveals how his latest startup Upstock is transforming the inefficient B2B food ordering process and levelling the playing field for small suppliers.    Many of our listeners will know Philip Fierlinger as one of the 5 co-founders of Xero, but let me share with you a bit of background about Philip: For over 5 years, Philip has been creating digital products and experiences that have set new standards of design, business and technology.  In 1992 a university project landed Philip an internship at General Magic where he conceptualised the “Mediaphone” a digital walkman, letting you download music anywhere, anytime. To give you some context this was 9 years before Steve Jobs introduced the iPod and 15 years before Jobs introduced the iPhone. Philip went on to create a digital agency, with his brother in 1994, doing work for Apple, the Beastie Boys, Comcast, Disney, Dreamworks, Macromedia, Palm, Sony Playstation, among many others. After moving to NZ, Philip co-founded Xero in 2006, where he was Head of Design for nearly 10 years. Philip was instrumental in Xero becoming a disruptive platform, an iconic global brand, and a market leading public company worth billions of dollars. And I suspect as he had a focus on design, he had something to do with making Xero beautiful software. Philip is currently Co-CEO of Upstock, a B2B wholesale platform that's transforming the way the foodservice industry operates. Along the way Philip has been an investor and advisor to numerous startups and scaleups including Sharesies, Milanote, Deputy, Atomic, Karbon, Chartio (sold to Atlassian) – helping with product, marketing, growth, team & culture, and investor strategy. In this episode, I talk to Philip Fierlinger Co-Ceo of UpStock.app about . . . Career journey from car design to tech entrepreneurship.  Xero's history, developing an accounting system with a focus on bank feeds and beautiful design.  Prioritising business operations over tax compliance with real-time cash flow visibility. How a three year old inspired the innovative design of Xero Launching a foodservice marketplace, digitising B2B transactions. The business model and pricing for a B2B marketplace.  Streamlining foodservice industry operations with UpStock platform.  A platform for farmers and suppliers to connect and grow their businesses. You have been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast. I encourage you to subscribe and leave a five star review, so other people can find this podcast. From here, I suggest you join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook for advanced conversations around the ecosystem. I suggest you  subscribe to the informative Accounting Apps newsletter which gives you a great overview of the ecosystem space. It's available at https://HeatherSmithAU.COM.  I encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast. I'm Heather Smith and you've been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast.

What are your options when your tech stack is bursting at the seams? You're struggling to get visibility over what's happening. You're balancing multiple spreadsheets and you're spending a lot of time consolidating data.    If you are trying to resolving your business's data overwhelm there are a number of options:   Spring cleans all the files, and all the data.  Merge duplicates and expunge old data, and trim down the data files.    Call in the professionals: Engage a professional cloud integrator to review your set up and advice of any efficiency opportunities.   Multi Entity Consolidation solution : I work with the Fathom team and they have a multi-entity financial reporting tool to help you compare and consolidate your organisations.   A new solution on the market that you may not have heard of is Translucent.io who I've recently started working with. It turns your existing single-entity accounting system into a multi-entity accounting solution. You connect your existing accounting software (Xero, QBO, etc.) and Translucent consolidates all your data to create a single financial system of record. Translucent Apps provide workflows for your muli-entity needs, such as searching for transactions at group level, creating consolidated reporting, managing intercompany transactions, live connecting your data to spreadsheets, and more apps being released every quarter.    While you may not have heard of Translucent before, it is likely that you heard of Dext, or Receipt Bank. The founder and good friend of mine, Michael Woods is the founder of Translucent.io and he's built it as a tool he would have liked when running Receipt Bank.    A fourth option here is to migrate to an ERP solution. This is something you can potentially explore with a Cloud Integrator about or speak with a software consulting specialist. As you start to move into this area, you really want to engage an experienced specialist who can give you an unbiased assessment of your options to help you know what is possible, and suggest options to future proof your business.   Each option has a different price point, and it's important to understand the scoping, implementation, training, maintenance and ongoing costs involved. Likewise make an assessment of how many hours a solution will save you once implemented, and will it enable your business to scale.  You can get CPE for this and other episodes of the Cloud Stories podcast. Simply download the EarMarkCPE App, and answer a few questions correctly about this podcast, and they email you a certificate of CPE. Connect with Heather Smith https://www.linkedin.com/in/heathersmithau/  Accounting Apps newsletter https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/newsletter/

Today I'm speaking with Ash Brown, the Founder & CEO of Empiraa. Ash Brown, a former leader with 15 years of experience in SME management. Frustrated with the disconnect between business planning and execution, Ash created a solution to help businesses align their plans in a simple and effective way. With a strong belief that work should feel good, Ash is committed to making business simpler. Company Profile    Empiraa is a business planning and execution tool that takes business planning out of decks and spreadsheets and creates actions around them that your whole team can work on together. Unlike project management tools, which are good for single tasks and projects, Empiraa actually creates vision in your business as you can see what is and isn't working across the business. This is how Empiraa helps you feel good about business. In this episode, we talk about . . . Adapting to new situations and building resilience.  Career transitions and the development of a business plan execution platform  Using Empiraa to streamline business operations.  Leveraging AI in business growth and development.  Using an accounting platform to provide coaching and advisory services.  Fundraising and product development for a tech startup.  Productivity tech tools.  Empiraa Demo links Empiraa/Zapier https://empiraa.storylane.io/share/zzyfn0sdoiuv Empiraa/Partners Zapier https://empiraa.storylane.io/share/d86qplkgmkgt Empiraa Partner Portal https://empiraa.storylane.io/share/mtkbiuxoujcn Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM Read more at https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/ From here, I suggest you join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook for advanced conversations around the ecosystem. I suggest you  subscribe to the informative Accounting Apps newsletter which gives you a great overview of the ecosystem space.  I encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast.

Today I'm speaking with Alex Ghiculescu, co-founder of both Tanda and Workforce.com. Alex is known for blogging and has a Substack newsletter where he shares stories from his 10+ years of building Tanda. Additionally, through Keen Strategies, Alex invests in B2B SaaS companies offering early-stage investments alongside technical and operational experience. In 2012 he received a distinction Bachelor of Business and Information Technology, Software Engineering from QUT (Queensland University of Technology). Tanda is an Australian Payroll, Rostering, and HR software designed for businesses that employ hourly workers. The company is headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, and also operates internationally as Workforce.com. Tanda offers an all-in-one solution that includes time & attendance, workforce scheduling, payroll integration, and reporting tools. In case you've not realised, Tanda stands for Time and Attendance. You can read the shownotes at https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/ From here, I suggest you join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook for advanced conversations around the ecosystem. I suggest you  subscribe to the informative Accounting Apps newsletter which gives you a great overview of the ecosystem space.  I encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast.

Today I'm sharing a panel discussion from the Weel CFO Summit ‘23. This discussion covered key considerations for finance technology procurement strategies, including expense management solutions, revenue collection processes, and spreadsheet vs reporting apps. The panellists provided advice on touching multiple solutions, negotiating pricing, and engaging stakeholders to understand pain points and maximise existing tools.   The topic was Finance Technology ROI 2023: Where to invest?   The panel participants were: Alex Miller Co-founder & CEO of Hudled  Jun Yan Director at Ravit Insights Laurel Grey National Manager, Digital Advisory at RSM Australia Tyler Caskey Partner The Bean Counters   In this episode, we talk about . . .   The typical procurement strategies The key elements to developing a procurement strategy. Challenges in the B2B market. Procurement process for larger purchases. Navigating step-up costs as part of a procurement strategy. The state of the fragmented expense management space. Dealing with painful is the expense reimbursement processes Challenges businesses face when implementing expense management solutions. The Magic Change Management Playbook. How to convince the board to make a change   Read more at https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/ Read more about Weel here : https://letsweel.com From here, I suggest you join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook for advanced conversations around the ecosystem. I suggest you  subscribe to the informative Accounting Apps newsletter which gives you a great overview of the ecosystem space.  I encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast.

In this episode, I'm sharing a talk I gave on Content Creation for Building your Brand at the Tropical Innovation Festival in Cairns on May 23. I talk about: Robot vs human-led content. How to leverage ChatGPT and other tools in your content creation process. Questions are a gift, how to leverage them in your content. Recycle, Reuse and Repurpose content Being clear on the brand and image you want to present to the world. It's also brimming with practical examples. Tools mentioned in the talk included - Canva for creating visual content - Otter AI for transcribing audio recordings - Google Docs and Microsoft Word for voice transcription features - Grammarly and Hemingway app for proofreading - ChatGPT for generating content ideas and outlines - Loom for recording videos and conversations - MailChimp for newsletters From here, I suggest you join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook for advanced conversations around the ecosystem. I suggest you  subscribe to the informative Accounting Apps newsletter which gives you a great overview of the ecosystem space.  I encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast.

Today I'm speaking with Sabby Gill, CEO of Dext. In this episode, we talk about . . . Sabby discussed his first 10 months as CEO of Dext and the changes he has implemented Sabby has been getting out to see accountants, bookkeepers and attending trade shows and regional shows. He has been listening to user feedback to better understand partners' needs. He wants to really focus on what partners are asking for. He has prioritised requested features like “Multi-account management” which allows you to manage multiple businesses or practices under one email address, enabling you to easily navigate between your business accounts from within your Dext account. https://help.dext.com/en/s/article/multi-account-management  Developed an expenses module that users had requested Dext shall be setting up regional advisory boards to get input from influential accountants and bookkeepers and a temperature check from the community. Dext will be launching a Chrome extension called the “Dextension” at Sydney Xerocon ‘23 to better integrate Dext and Xero. It's  currently in beta - read more here : https://help.dext.com/en/s/article/how-to-use-the-dextension-browser-extension  The Dext Extension will provide new features like quicker navigation between the apps and improved data visibility   Read more at https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/ From here, I suggest you join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook for advanced conversations around the ecosystem. I suggest you  subscribe to the informative Accounting Apps newsletter which gives you a great overview of the ecosystem space.  I encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast.

AI is such a hot topic at the moment! It was great to have a conversation with some experts, to identify some practical applications and dispel some myths.  Some of the highlights from this conversion were : 

Joining me today is Darren Glanville Country Manager - UK & EMEA @ Fathom. Darren is no stranger to the accounting profession and has more than twenty years experience helping accounting practices develop digital strategies and processes to drive efficiencies and profitability. Having worked for some of the biggest software providers including Sage, CCH, and Xero, Darren now heads up the EMEA region for Fathom and is passionate about leveraging technology to drive better business outcomes. Darren is a keen rugby fan (Newcastle Falcons), a self confessed coffee-holic and tech geek, you can find Darren walking his dogs on the beach near his home in Northumberland in the early morning and most weekends. And I'd also like to share with you that I strategically partner with Fathom, and have been good friends with the team since the very early days. In this episode, we talk about . . . The future of the technology landscape?  The rise of a more strategic view of forecasting. One in three businesses is running with less than six months cash. Introduction to Darren Glanville and his journey in the accounting technology space. The profitable and sustainable practice. What an extraordinary journey that you have taken.  The extraordinary journey of an extraordinary journey. The sad passing of Jason Forbes. Fond memories of Rod Drury, Xero founder. How has the accounting profession changed with the advent of digital technologies?  Pivoting from data-driven intel to data driven intel. The power of connecting with people. How the accounting profession has evolved with the advent of digital technologies. API's. Opportunities for accountants in Africa. Faster cadence of development and API's. What's the biggest change in the last 12 months?  End user experience when the platform completely changes. Australia and New Zealand are ahead. The bank feeds are the secret sauce. Darren keeps a tally of conferences he attended. Top tips for other sales professionals in the accounting technology space. Advice for young vendors. What is Fathom's purpose?  Being able to absorb information and connect with people. Collaboration and thought leadership. Fathom provides clarity and confidence to courageous business owners. The dikw model. What are some indicators that someone needs to move away from the spreadsheets?  The ladder from knowledge to actionable insights. Indicators to move from spreadsheets to reporting solutions. The difference between spreadsheets and distributed ledgers. The rise of the digital financial advisor. How do you get bookkeepers to listen to you? The rise of lotus 123 since 1990. The Australian Bas Agent regime. How to get consultants to revisit Fathom. The cyclical nature of the fathom industry. Micro-forecast and forecasting.  Fathom's micro-forecast feature and how it works. How the pandemic has changed the industry. Trends in the accounting tech space. The role of AI in the future of accounting. How clients will consume AI services. What excites Darren most right now?  How to get more information about Darren. What excites him about the next big thing. Darren is exploring how Chat GPT can help practices. Darren suggests starting a prompt club. The importance of being cynical about things. Physical presence changes everything.  I'm Heather Smith and you've been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast..    Connect with me here:  Newsletter https://heathersmithAU.com  LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/ FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind  Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU Medium: https://heathersmithau.medium.com/  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ANISEConsulting/podcasts

Interview with Paul Dunn Chief Story-Teller at CLARITY, and Co-Founder of B1G1.  

Interview with Graeme Tennick, Chief Impact Officer of Tennick Accountants 

In this episode I speak with Paul Miller, Managing Director of Cornish Accounting Solutions.

In this episode I speak with Gareth Burton Founder of Assure UK and Progress Accountants.

In this episode I'm speaking with Mel Kettle author of Fully Connected. Everybody should strive for a meaningful and purposeful life. And if you don't know what gives you purpose over your whole life, that's completely fine. But find a reason to get out of bed tomorrow. And one of the things that I love recommending to people is go to bed thinking about something that you're going to do tomorrow. That is going to bring you joy, something that you're going to do tomorrow that is going to make you happy. And it might be a day filled with Excel spreadsheets. And my husband's an accountant. He loves Excel spreadsheets. He used to send me one every day of our financial position and I'm just like, ah, once a quarter is enough I don't share your love. But you know, maybe it's you're going out for dinner with a friend or maybe it's you're going to the beach or you know walking Chester for you. But think about what are you going to do tomorrow that's going to light you up so that you can go to bed thinking of something exciting, and you can go to bed with something to look forward to the next day. Because when we have things to look forward to and then we do them, that gives us such fulfilment and such personal satisfaction, and that makes us feel valued in our lives. And when we feel more valued, we have a better life. Mel Kettle background Mel Kettle is an internationally recognised thought leader in fully connected leadership and communication. At the heart of everything Mel does is a commitment to self-leadership. She has an over-arching belief that we need to lead ourselves first before we can lead others. Mel's sub-speciality is helping women and organisations better understand the impact of menopause in the workplace and she is the founder of the award-winning menopause blog, Just as Juicy (www.justasjuicy.com). In January 2022 Mel was recognised by leadersHum as one of the Top 200 Biggest Voices in Leadership for 2022, one of only seven Australians on the list. Mel is the host of the podcast This Connected Life and the author of two books: The Social Association, published in 2018; and Fully Connected, published July 2022 This is what we talked about! Common communication challenges that individuals and organisations face and how to overcome them   The importance of having a conversation with your accountant about what you need.   What is a leader? What does work look like today?   Setting boundaries is an important aspect of personal growth and development in 2023. When setting boundaries, be clear on what it is.   Improving effective and active listening skills is crucial for individuals and organisations to enhance their communication.    Why it's important for leaders to engage in self-care.   The Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus said, It's not what happens to you; it's how you react to it that matters. Behaviour is inextricably linked to attitude. How do you let go of a negative attitude?   Don't let other people make you feel smaller.   How do you reassess and refresh your life?   Mel Kettle website https://www.melkettle.com/  Fully Connected and The Social Association Book. https://www.melkettle.com/books    Donna McGeorge  The 25-Minute Meeting The First 2 Hours  https://donnamcgeorge.com/books  From here, I suggest you join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook for advanced conversations around the ecosystem. I suggest you subscribe to the informative Accounting Apps newsletter which gives you a great overview of the ecosystem space. It's available at https://HeatherSmithAU.COM. I encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast. 

Inspired by James Clear's book Atomic Habits, this session unpacks the impact and power of habits on our business and our client's business.  *What are Atomic Habits, and why have we heard so much about this book by James Clear?! *How do Atomic Habits Work? How Can They Help You Achieve Your Goals? *How do you develop good habits and break bad ones? *Practical examples of habits that help achieve business success. *Apps we use to help us build and track good habits Speakers Moderator: Heather Smith, Founder, ANISE Consulting Dan Osbourne Podcountant at Two Drunk Accountants, Director CATS Accounting Michele Grisdale Founder Rainforest Bookkeeping Amar Latif Co-founder MAD Wealth    Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http://HeatherSmithAU.COM  This panel discussion was recorded at the GoCardless Buzz Labs at Sydney Accountex 2023. It is also available on the Cloud Stories podcast.  

Join Heather Smith and Nick Sinclair Founder - Humanverse Group (TOA Global & AB² Institute) as they discuss the following trends and how they impact accountants and bookkeepers. Chat GPT  Embracing innovation: Automation, AI & Technology  Oversupply of clients Undersupply of staff Diversified skill sets and micro learning Inflation Practice Transformation (and whatever that means to you) Cyber Security and Data Protection The year of No Increased interest in data analysis and business advisory Building valuable communities for clients Connect with Nick Sinclair on LinkedIn here https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicksinclair/  TOA Global https://toaglobal.com/  AB² Institute https://ab2institute.edu.au/  TOACon 2023 https://toaglobal.com/toacon/  Transform Yourself, Transform Your Business Give yourself three days to recharge. Learn from world-class keynote speakers on building meaningful relationships and winning teams; managing adversity and change; the game-changing importance of mindset and mental health, and more. You'll leave a better leader, with strategies to move your firm and your team members' careers forward. Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http://HeatherSmithAU.COM  This recording was for the Cloud Stories podcast and was recorded at the GoCardless BuzzLabs at Sydney Accountex 2023. Many thanks to the GoCadless production team. GoCardless:  https://gocardless.com/en-au/  I strategically partner with TOA Global. You can read my https://endorsementdisclosure.com  

It's quite exciting that a conference brand running in multiple overseas countries, UK, Spain and Canada has brought a conference to Australia. I hope one day to attend Spain's Accountex conference - we all know accounting is an International language, an accounting conference in a foreign language sounds like it would really push me out of my comfort zone!   I delivered three sessions at Accountex. Ethan Cooney of Ignition said the most popular session at the conference was the panel discussion on Explore Atomic Habits I led at the GoCardless Buzz Labs. Thank you very much Emily Shurey from the Marketing team at GoCardless who made that possible, and everyone who attended the session.   In this podcast I speak with:   Alex Cumberland Agency Partner Manager at Oncord Digital Marketing Software Jeremy Rowe General Manager Innovation of the CACatalyst team at CAANZ Rob Cameron CEO at FYI the Document management and process automation solution, purpose-built for accountants. Guy Pearson CEO at Ignition online proposals, automated billing and payment collection solution for professional services businesses. Melissa Lewis Business Development Manager SwiftFox CRM a CRM for accountants and financial service firms Dyean Moodley Digital Account Executive at a little firm called Microsoft. And from the bookkeeping world Nicole RED Lynch Co-founder Streamline Management Myreeann Tchopourian Managing Director Chisholm Business Services Pty Limited Tamara-Lee Beveridge BAS & ASIC Agent Bizcore 360  Julianna Nagy Founder of Horizon Accounts   Can I encourage you to stay informed by subscribing to the Cloud Stories podcast and the Accounting Apps newsletter.   Hi, I hope you found the interviews from Accountex informative and edutaining!    The two day Sydney Accountex conference was a great opportunity to catch up and spend time with members of the Accounting and Bookkeeping community and with familiar and a few new Accounting App vendors.   Initially I was asked to be a media partner, but I'm an accountant, and I felt a bit uncomfortable with that. The organisers established a content crew, which I instead asked to join and actively participated in. I was listed on the website as being part of the content crew, but am no longer listed there - I am not sure why.  During the early stages, the content crew were extensively involved with encouraging new speakers to pitch their ideas, reviewing speaker submissions, and highlighting which sessions we thought would resonate with the accounting and bookkeeping community. I'm focused on improving and nurturing the Accounting and Bookkeeping profession and community, and it was good to be part of the initial content development.   I was gratefully allocated a podcasting slot for the last session on the last day, in a cute podcast caravan, but my bad, I got confused with the calendar timings, and missed it completely.   I'm normally quite busy at conferences, and I hustled up a few more opportunities, as well as the interviews you just listened to, I delivered three fun and engaging sessions.    With the Fathom team I coordinated a brilliant panel discussion “How being purpose-driven and customer centric can help attract clients and retain top talent” on the main stage.   I delivered a panel discussion on Explore Atomic Habits at the GoCardless Buzz Labs with Michele Grisdale, Amar Latif and Dan Osbourne.    Also at the GoCardless Buzz Labs Nick Sinclair Founder - Humanverse Group (TOA Global & AB² Institute) and I discussed “Current Industry Trends and How Accountants and Bookkeepers can Optimise them.”    I plan to release the sessions recorded at the GoCardless Buzz Labs on the Cloud Stories podcast soon.   I'd also like to mention that Emily Shurey from the GoCardless team has a sparkly side gig. She supplies me with my Biodegradable & Eco Friendly Glitter follow her on insta at glitterazzi.me. If you need extra glitter in your life, and let's face it, who doesn't? You should source Biodegradable & Eco Friendly Glitter. Generally available glitter is a plastic core and polyester PET film and when it breaks down, releases chemicals that are harmful to humans and animals and it contributes to the growth of microplastic in the marine environment. Unexpected environmental message in an accounting technology podcast!!   I had a full access ticket, which conveniently gave me access to an ample variety of food & beverages, a really fun dance party overlooking the Sydney Harbour on the last evening.   The CACatalyst team from Chartered Accountants ran a pitch night, on the first night. One of the contestants was Empiraa, a gamified yet simplified business planning software, that helps you set business goals and an actionable plan on how to achieve them. I've met with the founder Ash Brown and he and the team at Empiraa have joined me as a strategic partner, supporting me to support the community.   I also had the opportunity to meet up and reconnect with a lot of brilliant people in the Accounting Industry, including Caroline Hobden, Portfolio Director at Accountex in the UK and Europe and she invited me to come and speak in the UK. Well maybe not this year, cause I shall be attending Amanda Aguillard's Accounting Salon in Florida, but I've pencilled it in 2024. How exciting.   More could be said about Sydney Accountex, but for me I used my positive energy to make the most of the event.    I hope you enjoyed this podcast. Can I encourage you to stay informed by subscribing to the Cloud Stories podcast and the Accounting Apps newsletter which you can find at HeatherSmith AU dot com.    

Today I bring to you some huge news from the Xero ecosystem that I and many people have been waiting to hear for over 8 years.   So I shall share with you two short interviews, Sara Goepel, Chief Product Officer at  Karbon, and then Jared Baker, Managing Director APAC at Karbon and afterwards I'll read extracts of the press release. These interviews were recorded at Sydney Accountex, and for those who attended, there was a signage at their stand about this announcement. Who spotted that???   Also In case you missed it, Karbon has recently appointed Mary Delaney based out of Chicago, as their new CEO.   I've been trying to coordinate an interview with Sara Goepel, for many years, and as serendipity would have it, when our paths crossed, she hinted at some huge news!   Please stay connected by subscribing to the Cloud Stories podcast.   Read more here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7046210821177159680/  https://karbonhq.com/resources/karbon-xero-integration/   Google Podcasts : https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9jbG91ZHN0b3JpZXMubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M/episode/ZGVhNTBmMTktNjk4Yi00NDA5LTg1ZTMtOGVjNDQ1YjgzM2Q3?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwi4yYiGuf39AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ    Apple itunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/huge-announcement-in-the-xero-ecosystem-sara-goepel/id908333807?i=1000606188697    Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/0hPNxTGvkefB7GOI7LTHxM?si=80d43b7e6c6e4294   

Last week was busy in Australia with two overlapping conferences; the Accounting and Business Expo in Melbourne and Accountex in Sydney.   In the beginning, when we realised there would be overlapping conferences, I contacted both conference organisers, letting them know my focus was on providing the best outcomes for the accounting industry. I joined the Content or Advisory Crew of both conferences.   Close to 4000 people attended ABExpo. The first session of the day, a fireside chat with the longest-serving treasurer in Australia's history Peter Costello, attracted a large crowd. Interestingly, I only knew about 5% of the vendors, and there was a jam-packed startup alley with about 20 new vendors, so it was fascinating to come across so many new solutions in the ecosystem.   During the day, I delivered two popular and educational panel sessions, which we all had a lot of fun with. I also scurried around the conference hall, eating free popcorn and pistachio gelato and finding interesting people to interview.    Jon Arrigo Managing Director at Microkeeper.  Microkeeper is an expert HR, Roster, timesheet, payroll and workforce management, all in one spot and I strategically partner with them. Lucas Finch Global Head of Wellbeing at Xero Daniel Rock Global Head of Sales at Suite Files Nick Bhalla Managing Director at Accounts NextGen IQ Daniel Spitty CEO at Everperform Ray Wang CEO at Luca Plus Laura Binns General Manager at the Conference Organisation at Terrapin   And yes I managed to interview more Daniels than I did females, I apologies for that oversight. I hope you enjoy the episode.   The Accounting & Business Expo is organised by Terrapin and I've enjoyed working with them for many years. The organisers have the philosophy "what Heather wants Heather gets", which is a philosophy I fully approve of! I'm given free rein to design the session and the content and select the panellists. I'm also a confirmed speaker at their Singapore conference, Accounting & Finance Show Asia 2023, 10-11 Oct and the Sydney Accounting and Business Expo, 22-23 Nov - if you fancy a trip to Singapore or Sydney, register on their website to find out more information! Also, let me know if you're attending, and maybe you can join one of my panel sessions.   Tropical Innovation Festival 5-9 Jun Cairns Accounting & Finance Show Asia 2023, 10-11 Oct Singapore Accounting and Business Expo, 22-23 Nov Sydney   Several Queenslanders flew in for the conference, and we all stayed at the same location, so we had a fun couple of days. On the last night in Melbourne, Chris Wheatley, the moderator of the Small Business Accountants Brains Trust facebook group, took us to his client's tiny bar, Yarra Falls in Flinders Lane. It was an absolute delight, so if you visit Melbourne, check it out. If this is your first time listening to the Cloud Stories podcast, please subscribe, and let me know where you are listening in from on social media; you can find me at HeatherSMITHAU everywhere.    

On today's episode I'm bringing you the energy and excitement of interviews from the Xero Brisbane Roadshow. Here's the order of who I'm talking to. I do try to introduce them at the start of each segment, but sometimes things don't go as planned. Kylie Wing CMO at Approval Max a tool for getting your bills and expenses approved and paid on time; Evan Barker General Manager at Synnch a tool for assisting with your R&D Tax Incentive; Tony Harcourt Co-Founder at WorkGuru.io a comprehensive job costing and optional stock control solution for SMB's Corey Cacic Founder and CTO of Annature a tool for affordable eSignatures and Identity verification; Colleen Diver who is the Managing Director at Logic HQ Pty Ltd. Colleen Diver was also one of the early Xero Account Managers in QLD & NT. She was also the original founder of Diverse Business Consultants, the business featured in the Xero keynote address. As well as diverse being a play on her name Diver, she told me she named the business Diverse because at that time she was diverse and worked across MYOB, SaaSu and Xero, until, in her words Xero eventually won her heart. And it's an Aussie podcast, so we can never have too many Kylies!  Our second Kylie on the episode!! Is … Kylie Drury Director of Sales and Operations at FishBowl. Fishbowl is manufacturing and warehouse management for repeat products. It's suitable if you're doing the same thing all the time and managing a production line. If however you're doing something custom or bespoke then you'd look at WorkGuru. It's important to understand the difference between inventory solutions in the market. And finally David Boyar Tedx speaker, CEO of Change GPS and Host of From the Trenches podcast and conference joins the show. At his request his segment was heavily trimmed, so hopefully I'm sharing the good bits, and that's why that interview is a little bit choppy. I'm grateful to strategically partner with a number of apps who support me, to support the community. In this episode, full disclosure I strategically partner with Approval Max, Annature and WorkGuru.io. You can find full details of how I strategically partner with businesses on my website. From here, I suggest you join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook for advanced conversations around the ecosystem. I suggest you  subscribe to the informative Accounting Apps newsletter which gives you a great overview of the ecosystem space available at https://HeatherSmithAU.COM.  I encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast, and let me know what your highlight was from attending the roadshow.   I'm Heather Smith and you've been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast.   

In this episode, Tony Harcourt talks about his journey from the early days of the Xero ecosystem through to leading a Cloud Integration business where he recognised a gap in the market for a job-costing solution. Without undertaking proper job costing, businesses do not have a clear idea if they are making money on certain projects and are unable to make informed decisions. This led him to establish WorkGuru.io.    We also discuss:   The journey to selling The Rype Group. The philosophy Product is king, but sales are the kingmaker. Why this job costing solution comes with branded baby swag. Tony's perspective on the future of the tech industry.   Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http://HeatherSmithAU.COM   I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Tony Harcourt. I strategically partner with the team at WorkGuru.io which you can read more about at EndorsementDisclosures.com. From here, I suggest you join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook for advanced conversations around the ecosystem. Subscribe to the informative Accounting Apps newsletter  available at https://HeatherSmithAU.COM. for a great overview of the ecosystem space. I encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast. I'm Heather Smith and you've been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast, make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss a future episode.

Today I'm speaking with Bryan Williams, Founder of Hockey Stick Advisory. In this episode, we talk about all aspects of “Partnership” and how through his new business Bryan Williams is enabling tech companies to reach their ambitions faster: by unlocking the benefits of partnership ecosystems so they don't have to grow alone, whilst delighting their customers every step of the way. The concept of partnerships? The benefits of partnering? How have partnerships evolved over time? The pitfalls of partnerships. The difference between an ecosystem and a partnership? Examples of how great partnerships work in the Accounting and Bookkeeping industry. How do you measure partnership efforts? Bryan also talked about the tech industry, and the trends coming through the ecosystem. He talked about  some of the progressive apps in the industry, including XBert (AI-driven data quality and workflow tools for progressive businesses using Xero) who he does ongoing work with. It's like your accounting file is on steroids, improving the data quality, and the informed information. XBert has a lot to offer, and can give time back to staff. Interesting fact: A man on the internet called Bryan Williams ‘the prince of partnerships', so it must be true From here, I suggest you join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook for advanced conversations around the ecosystem. I suggest you  subscribe to the informative Accounting Apps newsletter which gives you a great overview of the ecosystem space. It's available at https://HeatherSmithAU.COM.  I encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast. I'm Heather Smith and you've been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast.

Today I'm speaking with Sabby Gill, CEO of Dext  Sabby Gill was appointed as Chief Executive at Dext in October 2022. He has more than 35 years' experience in the technology sector, spanning sales, operations, development, support and customer service. He has spent his career supporting businesses of all sizes with technology that looks to unlock their potential—both at home and in international markets, including working in the Netherlands and Dubai. Prior to joining Dext, Sabby was CEO of Thomas International, which is a leading talent assessment and psychometric provider. Prior to that Sabby was UK & Ireland Managing Director of Sage, prior to that I held senior executive leadership roles at Epicor, IGT, HP, CA Technologies, Oracle, PeopleSoft and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). In this episode I ask Sabby Gill: You joined Dext two months ago, what attracted you to joining the Dext empire? What do you hope to achieve with Dext over the next two years? Let's talk about community. You've worked alongside the Accounting and Bookkeeping community for many years. In your introductory letter to the community you have said “I am obsessed with customer and employee engagement, and I'm excited to meet many of the partners and businesses Dext supports. If I jump into any forum and mention Dext, a lot of unhappy campers will respond ”What can the APAC region expect from DEXT over the next two years and beyond. What is the strategic focus of Partnerships within APAC? You serve on a number of boards, pushing for digital adoption: You've recently become the Chair of the Digital Leaders Advisory board, a community of over 180,000 professionals working to eliminate the issues that hold back UK Digital Transformation such as access to knowledge, networks and skills. What are you hoping to achieve in that role, how can UK people get involved with the Digital Leaders Advisory board, and have you got them all using Dext yet? Talk to me about the future of E-invoicing in Australia. Have you ever been involved in a company that has undergone a brand change / rename that Dext has gone through. Like before this session, I had to visit the website and find out what the official new name of Receipt Bank is - its Dext Prepare Were facing a tough economic environment, with inflation, looming global recession, what advice do you have for small businesses out there. Is there anything else you would like to share with our listeners and how can they get in touch with you? I hope you liked listening to that interview with Sabby Gill, CEO of Dext. From here, I encourage you to subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast, join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook for advanced conversations around the ecosystem, and subscribe to the informative Accounting Apps newsletter which gives you a great overview of the ecosystem space. It's available at https:// HeatherSmithAU.COM. I also encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm Heather Smith and you've been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast..

Today I'm speaking with Will Buckley, Country Manager at Xero Australia. Will was appointed Country Manager, Australia in 2022 following other leadership roles at Xero including three years as Country Manager for Canada. As Country Manager, he is responsible for supporting the small business economy in Australia and for Xero's relationships with the Australian government, financial institutions, and advisor community. Will joined Xero in 2015 working in the Australian business, before being appointed Finance Director of the US business and driving the launch of Xero in Canada. Prior to joining Xero, he held commercial finance roles in eCommerce and FMCG. He has a Bachelor of Business from the University of Technology, Sydney. In this episode, I ask What's a favourite song from the 80's? In 2013, you founded buckleybrown, a 100% cloud accounting practice for small business owners based in Sydney. I think what we all want to know is are they getting preferential Xero pricing ?!! And what have you taken from that experience into your role today? Can you share an interesting or fun memory of your time with Rod Drury? You've had quite an interesting career with Xero, in that you've moved from Australia, to the US, to Canada to New Zealand and now back to Australia again. Half of your Xero career you've worked for the underdog, and the other half you've worked for the dominant player in the market. What have you learnt from those two contrasting experiences? Do North American accountants and bookkeepers have a different approach to managing their teams and creating an engaging work environment that Australians can emulate. You're 33 years young, what do you hope to achieve in your role as Country Manager of Australia? You've coined the phrase “Compliance plus Conversations equals Advisory”. What's your take on compliance and where it fits in the future of the profession? I was listening to you talk, and you said something that literally stopped me in my tracks, “Your Client Relationship is your business IP”. Wow! I completely agree, for our listeners can you unpack what you mean by this statement. Beautiful is embedded in the Xero brand. Why should beautiful questioning be baked into an organisational DNA? You've said that you admire Jack Ma, Founder of Alibaba – for his approach to compartmentalising his career journey to be more impactful. Is this something you've tried to emulate? Is there anything else you would like to share with our listeners and how can they get in touch with you? I hope you liked listening to that interview with Will Buckley, Country Manager at Xero Australia. From here, I suggest you join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook for advanced conversations around the ecosystem. I suggest you subscribe to the informative Accounting Apps newsletter which gives you a great overview of the ecosystem space. Its available at https:// HeatherSmithAU.COM. I encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast. I'm Heather Smith and you've been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast.. Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

I'm Heather Smith and welcome to Cloud Stories, a podcast exploring the Accounting and Business Apps community. Stay up-to-date with the curated content I'm sharing by signing up for the Accounting Apps newsletter, available at https://HeatherSmithAU.COM  As you will be aware, I strategically partner with a number of Accounting Apps in the community and one of them is Fathom. Geoff Baker, Global Head of Customer at Fathom joined me today. Geoff has a unique and diverse background, with leadership roles in FMCG, Telco and, for the last 6 years, accounting software. He has managed multi-billion dollar budgets but is most at home in scale up companies, devising customer-centric strategies for growth and building high performing teams who love their work. Originally from the UK, Geoff lives in Brisbane, Australia with his wife, 3 daughters and two dogs. Geoff Baker is currently Global Head of Customer at Fathom. Fathom exists to give clarity and confidence to the courageous people behind every business. We help businesses worldwide manage and track their financial performance through our best-in-class app of the same name: a powerfully simple, all-in-one financial analysis, forecasting, and reporting tool. Bootstrapped in Brisbane in 2012, Fathom has grown to 80 people across our headquarters in Australia, and offices in the UK, the US, and the Philippines. We serve 70,000 customers worldwide, from small businesses to the world's biggest accounting firms. In this episode we discuss: Starting a side hustle of Australia's first Tea Leaf Vodka out of a project while completing an MBA.  In his role as Partnership Leads at Intuit, he was focused on Building, Partnering or Buying functionality for the Australian Intuit's solution. He shared the story of Fathom and what his current role entails The optimal scenario for accountants offering advisory services to their client base. Recent and up and coming releases within Fathom, including Reinventing forecasting, GSheets integration and Divisional Budgets I hope you enjoy this episode of Cloud Stories and I want to remind you again that I strategically partner with Fathom.

Accounting Innovation and Technology Buzz | Mar 22 In this episode, we: Congratulate Trent on joining From The Trenches as their CEO. Trent also wonders what he will do with his PI tattoo, now that they've rebranded to Ignition. Ask the question is Oh My Fraud with Greg Kyte and Caleb Newquist the only accounting podcast you can play in the car with your family listening in? Talk about the upcoming conferences, including Accounting & Business Expo 28 & 29 April Sydney, Sydney Xerocon, and Accountex 2023 News from DiviPay including a comprehensive new whitepaper for CFOs look to automation to improve team satisfaction. Unpack Xero's State of the Australian Accounting & Bookkeeping industry report New releases from G-Accon and BGL AND Touch on an article ‘Are Niche Apps The Way Of The Future? By Michael Astreiko, CEO of Synder I'm currently working with the Team at DiviPay to help them connect with the Accounting and Bookkeeping community. If you want to read about the way I work with Accounting Apps, please visit http://endorsementdisclosure.com You can always see my strategic partners, as they are clearly labelled in pink on the headers of all of my social media platforms. I hope you like listening to The Buzz. Reach out to Trent or I and let us know what you thought, and it would really help us if you share the podcast with someone who would find it useful. Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

Today on the Cloud Stories podcast, I bring you The Accounting Innovation and Technology Buzz: Current News, Trends and Analysis for the month of December 21. Trent McLaren (Head of the Accounting & Bookkeeping Channel at DiviPay) and I talk about The Great Acquisition vs The Great Resignation. We also discuss news and trends that we saw in the industry during 2021. Highlights of this episode include: DiviPay Series A Capital Raise ACCA ranked a webinar I hosted as their 10th most popular one of 2021. Watch it here. Everperform produced a series called 'The Great Rejuvenation'. Content is available via their LinkedIn page. I've had a Xero feature request ticked off my wish list (from circa 2015). I had actually discovered the functionality and did not realise I had this feature request still active. Here's where you can post and vote for feature requests: https://community.xero.com/business/ Square, Inc. Changes its name to Block then H&R Block sues Square to drop the name 'Block' LastPass announces its intention to establish itself as an independent company from LogMeIn.   Inspired by Blake Oliver + David Cristello's discussion on the JetPackWorkflow podcast we discuss the trends of Subscription Model & Remote Work Hologram-in-a-Box New apps: https://www.tango.us/ Create step-by-step documentation with screenshots.   I hope you are enjoying these monthly tech updates and discussions, that complement both the Cloud Stories interviews, and the Accounting Apps newsletter. I'd like to thank you the listeners for helping Cloud Stories rank in the top 10% of podcasts worldwide, according to Listen Note. That is quite an achievement for a tightly niched topic. In 2021 we published 25 episodes. The most popular listening month was March 2021. The most downloaded episode that was released during the year was with my friend Martha Yasso interview entitled “Never talk directly to your clients about cash flow, and other secrets from the cash flow queen” If you have recently discovered Cloud Stories podcast, I'd encourage you to go back and listen to previously published episodes as many of them are evergreen or timeless. That is the content is still relevant today. You can read more about the way I partner with Accounting Apps, including DiviPay the company Trent McLaren works with, by visiting http://endorsementdisclosure.com. You can always see who I am currently partnered with at the top of my social media banners, clearly labelled in pink.  I hope you enjoy this episode of the Tech Buz. I hope you liked listening to the Tech Buzz. Reach out to either Trent McLaren or I and let us know what you think of the episode. You have been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast. I encourage you to share the podcast with an interested friend and subscribe leave a five-star review, so other people can find this podcast. Stay up-to-date with the curated content I'm sharing by signing up for the Accounting Apps newsletter, available at https://HeatherSmithAU.COM 

In this episode, we:  Raise a cup to thank the bookkeeping industry Congratulate the Xero App award winners Change GPS, Service M8, azupay, Moula Talk about Hub24 acquisition of Class How to win a Tesla with Expensify The Canopy 2021 Client Expectation Studies QuickBooks Desktop discontinuation in one the UK, while an connected App will be rolling out in the USA Intuits Path to Advisory ebook Xero acquisition of Locate and Matt Paffs comments on that Xero announcing a deeper integration with Shopify The announcement that the e-signature solution Annature is partnering with Qantas Business Rewards I'm currently working with the Team at DiviPay to help them connect with the Accounting and Bookkeeping community. If you want to read about the way I work with Accounting Apps, please visit http://endorsementdisclosure.com. You can always see my strategic partners, as they are clearly labelled in pink on the headers of all of my social media platforms. I hope you like listening to The Accounting Innovation and Technology Buzz with Trent McLaren. Let either I or Trent know what you thought of it. You have been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast. I encourage you to subscribe and leave a five-star review, so other people can find this podcast.   Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

I'm Heather Smith and welcome to Cloud Stories, a podcast exploring the Accounting and Business Apps community. Today I'm trying out something new. I've given it the big hairy audacious title of The Accounting Innovation and Technology Buzz: Current News, Trends and Analysis. Joining me on the show is Trent McLaren. You might recall I've interviewed Trent on podcast shows. We've been friends for many years, and I always enjoy our conversations because he has well thought out insights about the industry. Currently, Trent is the Head of the Accounting & Bookkeeping Channel at DiviPay. In his past lives, Trent has probably worked at more Accounting Technology companies than many. Notably, Practice Ignition, Intuit and where I met him at eWay. He also worked for the outsourcing company TOA Global. In this episode, we talk about the many acquisitions that are happening in the industry. * Intuit + MailChimp + DataDear acquisition * We talk about the DiviPay Feature release * Practice Protect report: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6851377168572928001/ * Cin7 Inventory and Order Management Trends report: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6851377168572928001/ I'm currently working with the Team at DiviPay to help them connect with the Accounting and Bookkeeping community. If you want to read about the way I work with Accounting Apps, please visit http://endorsementdisclosure.com/. You can always see my strategic partners, as they are clearly labelled in pink on the headers of all of my social media platforms. I hope you like listening to The Accounting Innovation and Technology Buzz with Trent McLaren. Let either I or Trent know what you thought of it. You have been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast. I encourage you to subscribe and leave a five-star review, so other people can find this podcast.   Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

Nick Houldsworth Exec GM Ecosystem of Xero joined me from the Xero offices in Auckland and we discussed the launch of the Xero App Store. Initially, Nick explains what the Xero App store is, and the thinking behind it. He shares how the App Store will help match the right app with the right customer, and how this will work. As you can imagine, when this announcement was made, there was a lot of discussion about it in the Xero Mastermind group, and I brought their higher level concerns and questions to the interview. I should highlight that The Xero App store is now available in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, notably, it's currently not available in North America. What are your thoughts on the new Xero App store? I've heard a spectrum of opinions from the App Tech community. From shock, to suggesting the revenue share is too high, to the revenue share is fair. Someone commented if the revenue improves the API connections, then the engineers will save time on development, in turn reducing their expenses. Another said if it brings me, customers, I'm happy. Since Covid impacted conferences many within the App community have been asking how can we get in front of accountants, bookkeepers and small businesses. There are only so many webinars we can run? The vision of the Xero App Store is to help match the right app with the right customer and maybe while we're in this pandemic, it fills that conference void, and like many businesses that have pirouetted, it is a new opportunity that we can all leverage and benefits from. If you want to continue the conversation jump into the thread on the Xero Mastermind Facebook page. The interview was at a high level. I'll drop into the show notes, links to resources that may provide further information. If you have further questions about how it will work, or impact you the team at Xero are happy to answer any of the questions we weren't able to cover. Reach out to them at api@xero.com. I'd like to take the opportunity to say thank you to Nick Houldsworth, Sarah Scott and the team at Xero who helped coordinate turning around an interview so fast. You've been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast. To help other people can find this podcast it's really helpful if you subscribe leave a five-star review, AND you can subscribe to the AccounTech newsletter at https://HeatherSmithAU.COM

Today I'm speaking with James Parker, General Manager of Asia-Pacific (APAC) of Dext In this episode, we talk about . . . As you may be aware in Feb 2021, team orange rebranded from Receipt Bank to Dext. This led to a lot of discussions and perhaps confusion in the Accounting and Bookkeeping community. To try and address community raised issues, I invited James Parker, the new General Manager of Asia-Pacific (APAC) of Dext to join me for a community chat. I also invited bookkeeping advocate Cassandra Scott to join me as co-host for the session.   Let me give you some background of both guests:   James Parker joined Dext in November 2020 with over 20 years of experience in leading, transforming and growing technology firms within the accounting and legal sectors. His high-level interpersonal skills allow him to engage with stakeholders at all levels genuinely. A visionary leader, James enjoys engaging in thought leadership, challenging the status quo, and networking with industry and community peers. At Dext, James is responsible for the GTM strategy and rapid growth of DEXT in the APAC market. He is looking to grow ARR 30% YoY through a sustainable sales and marketing approach, delivering significant value to Accounting and Bookkeeping firms. Cassandra Scott is the Director of Laurus Bookkeeping, a business services consultancy specialising in cloud-based accounting and business systems based out of Brisbane. Cassandra is a Registered BAS Agent, Xero Certified Advisor, Xero Platinum Partner, and in November 2020, Cassandra was appointed to the Board of the Australian Bookkeepers Association. Cassandra provides mentoring services to other bookkeepers and contributes to the ongoing discussion and development of programs to increase the professionalism and evolution of the bookkeeping industry. In support of her goal to increase the profile and professionalism of bookkeepers and BAS Agents to both SMEs and other industry professionals, Cassandra founded and  administers the largest group of Bookkeeping Practice Owners in Australia. The group intends to provide support, mentoring and collaboration for Australian Bookkeepers who have their practices, and by doing so, continue to raise the bar and professionalism of the industry. This was recorded live with the accounting and bookkeeping community on June 7th and has been repurposed for the Cloud Stories podcast. I'd like to remind you to stay up-to-date with the curated content I'm sharing by signing up for the Accounting Apps newsletter, available at http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

A postcard style update from the host of the Cloud Stories podcast Heather Smith, sharing with you the ACCA initiative, The Practice Room that can be found here: https://www.accaglobal.com/gb/en/employer/employer-help-and-guidance/practice-connect/the-practice-room.html Peer to peer support for those in practice. Plus updates about Chester the 10-month-old Border Collie pup.

What accounting technology do you need? There are many options out there that bookkeepers can use to deliver advisory and solutions to their clients. This week’s guest knows all about the latest and greatest tools that can help you run a more profitable and efficient bookkeeping business. Heather Smith is an Australian who hosts an Accounting Technology podcast called Cloud Stories, curates an Accounting Apps newsletter and is the author of Xero for Dummies. During this interview, you'll learn... Tips & different accounting apps you can use The importance of knowing where to best spend your time profitably The distinction between profit balance versus account balance To learn more about Heather, click here.  To buy her book, Xero For Dummies, visit this link.  To listen to her podcast, check this out. 

I share a few facts and learnings from producing 100 episodes of the Cloud Stories podcast over the last 6 years. I've interviewed people from Australia, Canada, England, India, New Zealand, Scotland, Singapore, and USA. I've interviewed Accountants, Bookkeepers, Cloud Integrators, Country Managers, Evangelists, Founders, General Managers, IT Specialists, Marketing Specialists, Sales Specialists. I've had around 35 females, and 75 males on the show - yikes! Yes I know I need to strive for improved gender diversity. I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast, and leave us a 5 star rating, as that helps people find us! Also you can subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here: https://www.heathersmithau.com/

Heather Smith the hype girl for cloud accounting apps and host of the Cloud Stories podcast joins us on the podcast today to discuss her experience in building communities! We chat about her history in the accounting industry and how she has been able to build groups such as the Xero Mastermind Group to help fill a need in the community. 

Today   Four items from the cloud giving us a forward plan https://www.engadget.com/google-meet-free-gmail-account-100034641.html https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-oracle-zoom-video-commn/oracle-wins-cloud-computing-deal-with-zoom-as-video-calls-surge-idUKKCN22A1R9 https://www.zdnet.com/article/multicloud-deployments-become-go-to-strategy-as-aws-microsoft-azure-google-cloud-grab-wallet-share/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-cloud-revenue-climbs-in-q1-ad-sales-sink-due-to-pandemic/ Trends in Managed Services from CompTIA https://www.comptia.org/members/resource-library/content/trends-in-managed-services AND Ingram with even more programs to leverage https://www.channelpronetwork.com/news/ingram-micro-adds-two-financing-offers-fuel-deals-during-coronavirus-slowdown

Heather Smith, chartered accountant and host of the Cloud Stories podcast, "calls in" to the show and gives us an update on what's going on with coronavirus / COVID-19 in Australia. We'd love to hear how you're doing, too! Call our listener voicemail box at ‪(202) 695-1040‬. Leave a message! We'll definitely listen, and we might even play it on the air.

Heather Smith-  Heather Smith is a technology and lifestyle accountant with a deep understanding of automated integrated cloud business tools and how business apps can be implemented and utilised effectively to improve workflow and surface information useful for data driven decisions. Through running a modern cloud based practice for over a decade she’s extensively shared her methodologies, business strategies and work–life balance practices through the ‘Cloud Stories’ podcast, writing multiple Cloud Accounting books, and publishing the Accounting Apps newsletter: HeatherSmithAU.com. A FCA, FCCA, FICB, commerce graduate, and accredited trainer.    Website:   https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/  Listen to another #12minconvo

The cloud is full of stories which Heather Smith captures in her popular podcast 'Cloud Stories'. We asked her for more details.

The cloud is full of stories which Heather Smith captures in her popular podcast 'Cloud Stories'. We asked her for more details.

Today I am speaking with Martin Peirce from Zahara Software. In this episode, we talk about: * The importance of controlling and managing spend in an organisation *The benefits of a good supplier relationship. * Martin likens his business partnership to that of Gary Barlow and Robbie Williams of Take That! * The reduction in processing time recognised from adopting a digital workflow. * The type of clients suited to using digital purchasing controls, including NFP’s, multi-sites, construction for project control, and retail stores for departmental control. *  Zahara is named after a Spanish town, where Martin’s business partner lived.   Martin Peirce As CEO and founder of Zahara I am passionate about software development and creating systems that simplify business process. My teenage years spent programming my BBC Micro eventually found influence in my career after many years in property sales and business solutions sales. I designed Zahara back in 2015 and we launched it a year or so later. It now has a global user base of organisations managing and controlling their spend. Each new feature and refinement is as a result of my team and I listening carefully to what prospective and current customers want, to improve their finance function. Our experience in AP automation, document management and software-development has helped make Zahara a great success story. Bootstrapping Zahara has been great fun, but challenging. The future looks to be exciting. C2S continues to deliver support and professional services in the fields of AP automation and document management. Our affordable solutions work great with Sage 50, Xero & Quickbooks. We concentrate on the larger SME space dealing predominantly with multi-site, expanding organisations. Zahara Software Zahara is a cloud-based application to enable business to manage and control their spend. It provides the finance team with a complete visual of purchase requests that will soon follow into purchase orders and vendor invoices. Zahara is perfect for indirect costs. For the multi-site organisation or those running numerous projects at the same time. For us it’s not about stock and raw materials. It’s for those organisations like hospitality, leisure groups, care home groups, schools, restaurant chains, construction and electrical. Thank-you for listening to Cloud Stories. I hope you enjoyed the show. Can I encourage you to sign up to my newsletter, by visiting https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/newsletter/

Today I am speaking with Cameron Lynch founder of Etani Business Platform Cameron is a Chartered Accountant and the founder of the Etani Business Platform. He believes he can help businesses survive and prosper in today’s disruptive environment. Cameron is experienced with Business Intelligence (BI), Analytics, Big Data and implementing cloud-based solutions to streamline reporting systems. Live data has a significant role to play in assisting businesses to make wiser decisions, both now and in the future. Cameron’s passion is driven by the concept of creating vehicles to help businesses and individuals prosper. Cameron worked previously in Consolidated Financial Reporting. Every month, a team of accountants would send the subsidiary financial accounting data to existing, pre-filled tabs on numerous Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for consolidation.  While this may sound like smooth sailing, all it would take is for one person to hit the wrong key in the wrong cell, paste data into an incorrect tab, or add an additional column, without updating the SUM formula, and everything was corrupted. It was impossible to retain the integrity of all the accumulated data. Imagine this scenario: You walk into a meeting with your Board of Directors, armed only with your phone, tablet or laptop, containing live consolidated management reports. Your device can continually review all marketing, sales, finance and operational data in one place at any time. You can access updated information and answer all questions raised in the meeting, saving everybody a great deal of time and providing invaluable accurate insights.  Finally, Cameron has created a diverse new system, the culmination of years of experience, searching, testing, learning and an overwhelming passion to be the best.  How does the Etani Business Platform help accountants? When you couple Etani and Microsoft Power BI, you have a powerful system to help accountants in many different ways: 1. Etani provides your SME and small corporate clients with the best analytics software in the world. They have full access to live business insights simply by using their phone, tablet or desktop.  2. Accounting firms are enabled effectively do Power BI analysis at scale 3. You can extract data from third party SaaS software. Xero, MYOB, Quickbooks Online, Workflow Max, SimPro, Dear inventory, and many more. Live data is then streaming straight into your client’s dashboards  4. The Etani Bootcamp gives you 5 x 2 hour training sessions on BI in-house. Unlimited staff can attend or do the training online at your own pace. There’s plenty of on-going training available.  Templates: Etani has created a lengthy list of templates you can use inside Power BI. These cover sales analysis, budgeting, cashflow analysis, and various other scenarios. This template library continues to grow. Instead of your client struggling to make their own templates for each aspect of their work, these have been created for them, saving thousands of hours. Client delivery vehicle: Etani embeds your reports and dashboards into your own branded application. These are available on Desktops, iPhones, iPads, Androids and Tablets for your clients to use.  There are numerous benefits of doing this. • Your clients don’t need a Power BI Pro account (at a cost of $12.70 per month per user) to use the business insights. • You retain control of your IP. • The client can’t take the Power BI work you have done to another accountant. In this episode, we talk about . . .   How his training to be an accountant, and understanding of cash flow has equipped him to run a business How Etani and Microsoft Power BI help practices deliver advisory services to SME’s. The two main reasons, Cameron thinks users love Power BI The different data sources clients want, beyond Financial data The most successful rollouts of Etani Business Platform and Power BI are undertaken by firms charging a monthly fee, productising their offering, and benefitting from recurring revenue. And I have included in the show notes a link to The International Federation of Accountants post stating that the reported balance sheet only reflects 20% of what is happening in the business, and a link to those Trello templates. Thank-you for listening to Cloud Stories. I hope you enjoyed the show. Can I encourage you to sign up to my newsletter, by visiting https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/newsletter/

Small Biz Matters – a half hour program each week where you can work ON your business rather than IN it. with Alexi Boyd from Boyd Office Management Services Date: 19 March 2019 The business arena has changed immeasurably in the last 30 years. From the dawn of the internet (1983)  to cloud based software and onto worldwide connectivity - this is a widely different world in which to operate a small business. But it’s also flexible and enjoyable, if you can make it work for you. The world is quite literally, your small business oyster. So how do you navigate the software developments, client expectations and fast paced world of working worldwide? Technology implementation can be daunting. Well, if you’re a Small Biz Matters listener you just keep listening. On the show today we welcome Heather Smith, Chartered accountant. Cloud solutions expert. Business automation virtuoso. YouTuber. Podcaster. Author. Speaker. Sounds like she’s just the person to give us Small Business owners Top Tips on working worldwide and the best tools you’ve probably already got access to! Welcome to the show Heather. Topics we’ll be covering: Working worldwide You’ve told me that your practice fits in your handbag, can you share with us what tools you currently have in your handbag? When you’re travelling how do you find suitable locations to work? If you are operating with clients in different time zones - how do you balance work and personal/home time? Can you share with the audience what you mean by the term ‘worcation’ What are the advantages of working with an international client base? (Take advantage, or be aware of, the seasonality nature of your sector and your clients. In accounting for example different jurisdictions report at different times of the years This could help to spread your workload!) What are some Apps that can enable you to work as a Digital Nomad, from anywhere in the world? (to mention Calendly) Efficiencies Expertise Adopting technologies & why its important in every businessWhere can we find the efficient and effective apps etc to use in our profession? Big tools and small tools - MUST HAVE’sDashboards Platform - online accounting - Bank feeds RB The difference between solutions (such as online accounting) and tools (such as tools that extract data from online accounting, or that trigger an activity) MinuteDock - Time Tracking solution that enables you to track clients, tasks, activities, working across budgets, targets and budget goals. Why it helps firstly to look more closely at the system you’re already using.cloud based solutions are constantly evolving and releasing new features. Contact existing software providers to find out about training opportunities then actually set time aside to train and learn all features. Engaging with a bookkeeper   How does this differ to an accountant? How best to use their expertise Why are more and more accountants are using bookkeepers more To find out more go to her website: https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/ Sign up to her newsletter - > https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/newsletter/ Listen to the Cloud Stories podcast - > https://heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/podcast/ Heather Smith BIO Heather Smith helps businesses reduce the time they spend on admin, improve their workflow, automate business processes and surface information to support data-driven business decisions. Throw into the mix some technology buzzwords like machine learning and artificial intelligence, you can think of it as employing robots in your business! By leveraging technology, people can spend less time in the business and more time on the business. Heather helps businesses understand cloud-based connected technology through education.  She’s educated over one million people, via her YouTube channel, her Cloud Stories podcast, an online MasterMind group, and a curated Business apps newsletter  – all of which are available for free! Plus, she’s written nine business books including the Xero for Dummies series a business planning book, called Learn Small Business StartUp in 7 Days. Heather is a chartered accountant, has run her own practice, and believes professional advisors can work from anywhere, and support clients anywhere, by honing their ability to offer services online.

Heather Smith is a chartered accountant, business and technology writer, author of eight books (including Xero for Dummies). Her educational YouTube channel has been viewed one million times and her Cloud Stories podcast is one of the top five accounting podcasts worldwide. Heather was one of the original cloud accountants. What inspired her to be an innovator? As a working mom of two, Heather only had the hours between 9 and 3 to get meaningful work done, so she had to be as efficient as possible. Driving around to access client data just wasn’t going to cut it. Learn how Heather made the transition from management accounting to training, speaking, and consulting, and where she thinks the profession is headed when it comes to technology.

A short update from Heather Smith on what is happening with the Cloud Stories podcast moving forward. Thank-you as always to listeners and supporters.  

Following on from Xerocon South 2016 a powerhouse crew from Brisbane came together to discuss and dissect the lessons learnt from this conference. The panel discussion and the audience q and a was recorded and will be of interest to attendees and non-attendees alike. If you did attend Xerocon – it reminds you of some of the areas you need to revisit and explore. If you didn’t attend Xerocon – Tracey, Cassandra and Justin have done the hard work for you and bring their own twist to the lessons, highlights and outcomes that Xerocon had for them. Please support the sponsors of Cloud Stories and visit them at www.spotlighreporting.com where you can access a free trial, training, and educational whitepapers, including Cash is King-Cloud Style and The Perfect Advisory Relationship. Solutions mentioned during this panel discussion include, but are not limited to: • Hubdoc • ReceiptBank • KarbonHQ • ExpenseCheck • ApprovalMax • Vision6 • IODM • Moula • Waddle Panel of speakers: Chartered Accountant Tracey Newman is the Director of Cloud Counting a small accounting practice based in Brisbane. Her passion is to train clients to use Xero and make the most of cloud based technology to save time and have fun. Cassandra Scott is the Director of Laurus Bookkeeping, a business services consultancy specialising in cloud based accounting and business systems. Cassandra provides mentoring services to other bookkeepers and contributes to ongoing discussion and development of programs to increase the professionalism and evolution of the bookkeeping industry. Justin Campbell has worked for Xero since 2013 and has background in accounting and recruitment. He has also worked closely with small business as a disability employment consultant. He is passionate about the role of small and micro business in the role of the Australia economy.

Sophie Hossack is the Australia Country Manager at Receipt Bank. Receipt Bank is the bookkeeping productivity tool used by 4,000+ accountants and bookkeepers around the world to increase their efficiency. Sophie was one of the first employees at Receipt Bank and has worked in three of the sales teams globally. Receipt Bank The leading accounting and bookkeeping firms around the world use Receipt Bank to automate their bookkeeping and deliver a world-class service to their clients. Receipt Bank is the award winning, venture backed software company with offices in Sydney, London & Washington DC. Website: https://www.receipt-bank.com/ Twitter: @ReceiptBank / @Receipts_Sophie Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReceiptBank/ LinkedIn: @ReceiptBank Subscribe to Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807

Andrew Van De Beek is a constant source of excitement at the illumin8 office and leads the team with encouragement and a fistful of positivity. Being firmly entrenched in Gen-Y, he’s keenly interested in new businesses and original ideas, and loves discovering emerging software and technologies that help these start-ups succeed. illumin8 We‘re more than just Accountants! We offer small business cloud accounting with a focus on automating and streamlining your systems to ensure you are spending more time growing your business. Website - http://illumin8.com.au/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/illumin8partners/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/andrew_illumin8 and https://twitter.com/Illumin8prtnrs LinkedIn - https://au.linkedin.com/in/andrew-van-de-beek-21a30915 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/illumin8partners/  Subscribe to Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807

Today on episode 45 of the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with Wayne Schmidt. Wayne has over 28 years’ experience in the accounting industry spearheading the Australian expansion for Xero, MYOB and Reckon. Wayne is passionate about helping accounting firms to grow, embrace change and drive profitability. Based in Australia, and having worked in the USA, UK and China, Wayne has a unique global understanding of accounting firms and the latest trends in the accounting industry. Karbon is task management software designed for accountants. Subscribe to Episode 45 of Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807 In this episode I talk to Wayne about: From a young age Wayne was a trailblazer – studying applied computer science at La Trobe University – in the early 80’s. So he had a background in computers before we realised how revolutionary they were going to be! Wayne is a programmer and code cutter by trade. After university he worked for old traditional company Norwich Life in Melbourne – writing financial planning software for about five years. They still had a tea trolley! July 1988 he realised the only way he would get promoted is if someone dies. So he left and set up a programming company called Tailored Solutions. He started writing computer software. He did that horrible calculation he timed out his hourly rate by how much he could actually work, plus leave, and realised he was down to not much salary. He’d left a company and just got a job with no one of the benefits of having a job. He realised he needed to do something. He looked around and thought why don’t I sell stuff? If you sell something there is no limit to what you sell it’s not like hours. Wayne had a light bulb moment “When you are selling stiff you can sell as much as you like? Let’s pick the hardest thing that no-one likes selling and that was accounting software! So that’s how Wayne developed an interest in the accounting world! Tailored Solutions sold accounting software when accounting software was really expensive, and before MYOB or other well-known brands were around. Wayne recognised how important bookkeepers were in the industry and launched the MYOB bookkeeper programme. #Trailblazer He redeveloped all the partner programs including the developer and Certified Consultant (CC) program. He started partner programs from his own business Tailored Solutions. Wayne discusses his time with MYOB in the UK. He highlights the lack of development funding and payroll in the solution. Why it was sold and how he sold it lightning fast! You need to invest in your core. Wayne shares his first memory of Xero. It was while working at MYOB – they had a war room – where Xero’s name came up. If you ever hear your staff say let’s have coffee – it is code for I’m going for a job interview. Wayne shares insights into his first meeting with Rod Drury and Hamish Edwards. He thought “This clouds going to go places.” He started as the Country Manager of Xero in 2009. He talks about the early days, limited funds, low customer numbers, big image! He talks about making a video with early adopter Gillian Rossouw. So with all of these achievements what has Wayne won? We discuss how awesome the MYOB CC’s program was – gave you a business and let you run it the way you want it. Wayne actually knows how to use accounting software!! Wayne is self-taught when it comes to sales and marketing. He has done courses, and he observes and analyses and assesses what works for him. Yes Clayton Oates gets a mention at the 19min mark! Wayne and I are competitive when it comes to social media. He is beating me on LinkedIN (10250!), I am beating him on twitter! Both are a way to build up your personal brand. Wayne talks about KarbonHQ a task management solution for accountants founded by Stuart Mcleod. KarbonHQ operates as a triage to allocate email and tasks to staff. It is developing AI, and will be vendor agnostics. Stuart McLeod developed a payroll solution that was sold into Xero, and is the payroll solution users will know. Know who you are marketing too. You have so much control if you know that. Karbon has done a great job of releasing white papers “2016 Karbon accounting trends report” You can download the report here: https://karbonhq.com/downloads/?type=downloads&id=83e07d72-ca1d-11e5-afd8-0236605552d7&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_content=OK-twitter-profile&utm_campaign=OK-%23KarbonTrends Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. Resources mentioned in this interview MYOB http://myob.com.au Reckon https://www.reckon.com/au/ Xero https://www.xero.com/au/ KarbonHQ https://karbonhq.com/ Connect with Wayne Twitter @KarbonHQ and  @Wayne_Schmidt Facebook https://www.facebook.com/karbonhq Website https://karbonhq.com/ LinkedIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayneschmidt Thanks for listening! What’s been your biggest learning from today’s episode? Share in the comments below.

Today on episode 44 of the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with Jacqui Jones the founder of Way We Do, a cloud based standard operating procedures platform. Although Jacqui’s career started in film and TV, she accidently fell into the Internet industry right at the beginning of the Web with Netscape Navigator 1.2. She moved from Brisbane to Auckland for a 6 month contract, which turned into 14 years.   Her career has spanned a range of Internet specific roles including digital product management at APN, Head of Digital Product at Yellow NZ, Marketing Manager and SEO Consultant at Netconcepts (NZ & US), Communications Manager at The Electronic Commerce Network (ECN), owner of web development agency Webenz, and Product Manager at MessageMedia, a subsidiary of NZ Post.   Way We Do is a cloud based standard operating procedures software, enabling businesses to create electronic work instructions, such as policies, procedures and checklists, so teams won’t forget simple or complex tasks when they do their day to day work. Business owners implement Way We Do primarily for productivity and compliance purposes. Subscribers currently come from 9 countries, ranging from small businesses with a handful number of team members to large enterprises with thousands of employees.  Way We Do is used by a variety of industries including accounting firms, bookkeepers, professional services, retail, trade, medical, manufacturing, technology and many more.    Subscribe to Episode 44 of Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807   In this episode I talk to Jacqui about: Dan and Jacqui started ‘Way We Do’ after starting a business called Key Word Intent – a software and internet marketing business. They participated in the Business Mastery –Turn Key program at the National College of Business in 2012. Discovered they and other businesses were struggling with the tools they were using to document their business. So they decided to create a solution to solve this problem. Jacqui discusses how customers affected their brand evolution which currently includes old planes and emblems. Jacqui likes inventors, curious people and problem solvers. Jacqui uses Xero, ZenDesk and CapsuleCRM though may replace Capsule with Hubspot, in their own business. Discussion about online note taking solutions – I use iAWriter. Jacqui trialled Evernote. Why should businesses systemise and document their policies and procedures? To scale up you need to document policies and procedures so your staff know what to do and you deliver quality and consistently. Procedures can free up a business, so you can run the business without being in there. Plus they have a business they can sell, license or franchise. Keep refining and improving processes Coaches recommend running a business like a franchise. You should start systemising business from day one, especially if you hope to employ people, and scale up. Implementing procedures can cut out a layer of waste in the business. Anyone in the organisation can document policies and procedures: subject matter expert, business owner, or pair people with writers to extract. Hire specialist technical writers. Start on one part of the business first – Jacqui suggests tackling the biggest problem area first – so you get a few wins on the board. To create a positive feel about the process of implementing processes! WayWeDo prompts the team back to the solution to keep using the operations manual. This minimises inconsistency with brand experience. WayWeDo is built on an API so can connect with other solutions. Pitching to Venture Capitalist and raising capital for the right reasons. RiverPitch and lessons learnt. The WayWeDo incorporates images, video and audio and different learning styles – important for people who struggle with reading or learning difficulties. Aids with outsourcing and with non-English speakers. WayWeDo has a partner programme.   Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting.   Resources mentioned in this interview   Xero https://www.xero.com/au/ Evernote https://evernote.com/ iaWriter https://ia.net/writer/ios/ Capsule CRM https://capsulecrm.com/ ZenDesk https://www.zendesk.com/ Hubspot http://www.hubspot.com/ Business Mastery –Turn Key program at the National College of Business   Connect with Jacqui   https://www.xero.com/au/ Website: www.waywedo.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/way-we-do/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/waywedo Twitter: https://twitter.com/waywedo Google+: https://plus.google.com/+Waywedo/   Thanks for listening! What’s been your biggest learning from today’s episode? Share in the comments below.

Ep.43 Danetha Doe - Financial Freedom is a journey of self-love Today on episode 43 of the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with Danetha Doe. She is a celebrity financial strategist and sought after speaker on the “Future of Accounting”. She was selected to be a millennial brand ambassador for Xero in 2014 and named one of the Top 40 under 40 accounting professionals by CPA Practice Advisor in 2015. She is the creator of Financial Foundations, a 6-week bookkeeping training program for small business owners. Danetha Doe Consulting, LLC is a financial education company. They provide training programs for small business. And work with large FinTech companies to engage millennial and women entrepreneurs. Subscribe to Episode 42 of Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807 In the intro I mention the Timely 30 Day #SelfCare challenge. You can find out more about it here: - http://www.gettimely.com/self-care-challenge/signup/ Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. In this episode I talk to Danetha about: From her days as an NFL cheerleader Danetha learnt that you can do accomplish anything that you set your mind too. Dancing involves a combination of physical, emotional and mental discipline. In business our mindset is so important to get things accomplished and become a great entrepreneur we have to believe that we can become an entrepreneur and that we deserve to have a successful business. Danetha grew up running track and approaches business like a full bodied sport. Having mental discipline is important to get things done and push through when times can be challenging. In track you can only get so far running track participating as an individual. You also need to be a good team player. In business Danetha sees herself as both an individual and a team player: it’s important to be laser focused on own business goals and take care of herself first and foremost. In addition if I find a way to help other people both of us can rise to a level that’s mutually beneficial. Clear Eyes, Full Hearts Can’t Lose – Danetha mantra is Financial Freedom is a journey of self-love: It’s about being in complete control of your life and your destiny. Danetha Doe Consulting is a financial education company – empowering others to make financial decisions that make the most sense for them. Maybe this is splurging on the spa or travel. When we completely ignore the finances, or hand it over to someone and expect them to make all the decisions – that is when things in their business can go sour. Danetha works with a lot of personal trainers – you cannot outsource your burpees! Danetha started her first business at twenty, after finishing university, selling active wear. This resulted in her becoming completely broke and very depressed in 2008. She felt she had failed as an entrepreneur. How could I make such a big financial mess of myself with my knowledge and drive? Danetha got some part time jobs. Initially at the Grand Canyon as a waitress…Then worked at a ski resort as an accountant. Ski Resort did really well with revenue – but still had cash flow issues. Danetha role was to figure out why they were doing so well at sales but were cash poor. She realised from this experience that cash flow challenges are across the board – they are a skill you have to learn. I hope through my own experiences my own clients will not have to go through hard times with cash flow and can learn from my experiences. That is where the idea for Danetha Doe Consulting came from. As a small business owner you are already crazy smart because you’ve launched a business – so you are smart enough to manage your finances as well. Discovered the disconnect between university education and the real world – you can only get so far with formal education - as a small business owner you have to get out there and do the work, and make mistakes and figure out what works for you. Danetha loves when her clients develop a sense of confidence and self-worth around what they do. Own the service and price you provide to the world. Paul Miller at Cornish Accountants in the UK asked: “In your coaching and mentoring role how has Xero and other cloud apps helped her & her clients?” Xero is one of the things that re-inspired Danetha to do accounting. Xero brings a sense of beauty to our work as accountants. It is the only platform that makes it approachable to do their books. Because of the beautiful design and layout they feel it is intuitive and it instils a sense of confidence that they can navigate around the system. Danetha is a big fan of Tsheets a time tracking tool. One of the first things Danetha does with clients is to increase their prices. She combs through their prices and they are normally undervaluing themselves so they will increase it. A part of being able to ‘own’ the new rate is to be able to see how much time they take to do a task – so they understand how much they need to charge. Paul Miller at Cornish Accountants in the UK asked “What cloud apps does she use to deliver her work?” I use Xero and Tsheet and a platform called thinkific to house training modules for my clients. Danetha has a blog at Money and Mimosas http://www.moneyandmimosas.com/ … It is a bookkeeping blog that includes a detail photo expose of someone enjoying a sugar Brazilian wax! She mixes up topics about skin care and mimosa’s with bookkeeping because she wanted one place where she could read about bookkeeping and skincare topics. The underlying why behind the blog is giving woman permission to feel OK about wanting to be pretty and getting paid. Danetha believes the future of accounting looks a lot like accountants moving into the role of a consulting or trusted advisor or outsourced CFO – though she is not sure how well this is being embodied yet. It will be less data and manual entry, and as we get into AI it will be less tax filing. As we move into a global world the tax barriers between countries will begin to start to melt. It will not be about servicing clients in the states if you live in the states. It will really be about ‘How can you help your clients grow their business using the financials in their company?’ With technology completely commoditising our work - we are now competing globally and we have to convince a client that we understand their deepest desires and deepest needs when it comes to their business. It’s about how can they grow their business. Marketing and branding helps you spread awareness about your company to these global clients as well as demonstrate your expertise within your specific niche. Danetha shares some examples of branding she has used in her own business to connect with clients on a human level and transition it to business. Danetha talks about her various partnerships. Danetha loves conversations and connecting with people who are passionate about their business. Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. Resources mentioned in this interview moneyandmimosas.com/ thinkific Tsheets Xero Connect with Danetha Doe danethadoe.com twitter.com/danethadoe Instagram.com/danethadoe

Today on episode 42 of the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with Greg Tuckwell who’s been the Director of Poole Group since 1993 and CEO of Zerobooks since 2013. Greg joined Poole Group after 6 years with C&L (PWC) doing insolvency and came to Poole Group to set up a Business management division. Three years as an engineering draftsman before that. Greg had never done tax and always focussed on systems, processes, feedback/reporting and business improvement. His passion is to challenge and improve how a business operates and he has done a number of successful business turnarounds. That passion/focus has now moved to cloud based systems Poole Group is an accounting practice with around 60 staff across a range of specialised fields from standard compliance to SMSF and have our own AFSL licence to offer wealth planning and insurances without being tied to one brand. Poole Group also have two coders on staff to automate as many processes as possible. ZeroBooks is an offshoot of Poole Group and is designed to provide back office and white label bookkeeping to other accounting firms and was born with a global focus. Subscribe to Episode 42 of Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807 Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. In this episode I talk to Greg about: #ItsAllAboutTheView Greg’s version of Stop and Smell the Roses. You’ve got to enjoy what you do and life. If you’re coming to Brisbane Xerocon 2016 add a few days on and travel up to the Sunshine Coast where Greg Tuckwell is based. Most of our business comes from referrals and word of mouth. Greg’s background is in insolvency and has never done a tax return! The top three reasons for business failure Greg saw while working in insolvency were: Their processes weren’t good Their information wasn’t good. They made the wrong management decisions. Focus was on processes, information, management reporting, and kpi’s. When they saw Xero come through realised they could build a whole business platform using the eco-system. Benefits of working in insolvency as a young accounting graduate. Staff initially suggested Greg should look at Xero. Attended Xerocon Melbourne 2012 and it left a big impact. Xero gave their vision, they said this is where we are, these are our deficiencies, this is our future, and this is our vision. What really got me was when Stuart McLeod said Xero would have payroll by March 2013. Once payroll came out we moved forward with Xero. 5 steps to developing systems and processes: Understand what is required and what the outcomes are. Understand what the client needs. A process for one client may be different to another. There may be several options – need to build that in and identify what is best for the client. Processes are documented as detailed as possible. The practice gives a procedures manual to the clients so they have a process they are meant to follow. [For other business this could range from creating unique procedure manual, through to Xero for Dummies, through to printing off notes from official Xero Training notes] The team may identify rework and refinement. They will help define it and improve the process. When recruiting staff look at experience, gut feel, culture, outgoing, good references. When recruiting need a mixture of Finder Minder Grinder in the team. Finder: People who are good at going out and finding work, getting work, bringing it in. Minder: Manage relationships. Talk to people. Good at communication. Can manage a team Grinder: Good at what they do. Typically introverted. Focused on being process driven and getting the job down. Need to identify the gaps and fill them. Work out what you want to do and collaborate with people who want to do the other work. Offer a scholarship for local students to go to the local university and study accounting for the last 12 years. Manage a team in the Philippines. Two coders are on staff – they have developed all the automation in the business. The website, the on-boarding, the proposal. Relationships are the most important part of any business. Always personal phone call at the start of the relationship. Suggest small businesses move to the clouds through a staged implementation. Once clients were used to Xero, we would suggest another solution. Don’t sell products, sell benefits and solutions. So the next conversation could be let’s move you to Receipt Bank. Don’t try and take it all on at one. Initially were trying to understand as many add-on solutions as we could. We recognised that we did not have the resources or expertise to become experts in them all. We focused on understanding Xero and the horizontals. A horizontal solution is one that can be applied to many different industries. When it comes to the verticals we talk to the integrators who specialise. So the big learning was collaboration.   Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. Resources mentioned in this interview Receipt Bank www.crunchboards.com/ www.chaser.com.au/ www.tradiepad.com.au/ Connect with Greg Tuckwell zerobooks.com/ poolegroup.com.au/ @poole_group @Zerobooks @greg_tuckwell zerobooks.com/blog facebook.com/poolegroup Poole Group Zerobooks.com Greg Tuckwell Thanks for listening! What’s been your biggest learning from today’s episode? Share in the comments below. Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe and if you love Cloud Stories the Podcast please take a minute to leave a review.  

Today on episode 41 of the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with Jessica Ellerm who is the Partner Development Manager for Tyro, Australia’s nextgen bank. She is responsible for the rollout of Tyro’s deposit account with Xero and Tyro’s first growth funding solution, launching mid-year. Jessica is also an active commentator in the Fintech space, writing regularly for her own blog jessicaellerm.com and international blog Daily Fintech. She also guest reports for global Fintech podcast Breaking Banks and is an online broadcast journalist for the Finance News Network, where she presents the Monday and Friday Market Outlook. Tyro Payments, Australia’s first independent EFTPOS provider, has been granted a general banking authority by the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority that allows the company to take money on deposit and to advance money to Australian businesses. This is the first time a challenger has been authorised to compete head-on with the banking establishment. Today Tyro has close to 16,000 EFTPOS customers and processes nearly $8 billion dollars annually. Subscribe to Episode 41 of Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807 Today’s episode is kindly sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. Scroll to the bottom to download your free white paper The Perfect Advisory Relationship. In this episode I talk to Jessica about: Jessica maintain’s her own blog at jessicaellerm.com. It’s focused on growth hacking, fintech, banking and payments – topics that are of interest to her. It contains medium to long form articles. Jess shares the benefits of publishing her own blog. This included connecting with people all over the world, and recognising topics people engaged with. Jessica has worked in FinTech before they even used the terminology FinTech! A good way to explain what you do – when no-one really understand what you do - is turn it into a story and relate it back to a person’s life and how it affects them. Breaking Banks is a global podcast run by Brett King a futurist who is focused on disruption in Financial Services and the emerging FinTech sector. Jessica shared what’s happening across the world, in terms of peer to peer and peer to consumer, Challenger and Tandem banks. The next areas of disruption will be around regulation and insurance. #RegTech #InsurTech. UK and US leading the way in this area. UK is embracing Fintech. Blythe Masters CEO of Digital Asset Holdings(ex JP Morgan) has just made a significant investment in partnership with the ASX around blockchain technology. She has pointed out that FinTech has been able to flourish because the banks are so focused on cleaning up the mess after 2008. Innovation is happening outside of the banks essentially. Malcolm Turnball our Australian Prime Minister has a strong banking background and has established the FinTech Advisory panel – one of the goals is to make finance more accessible to small business. Malcolm Turnball and Scott Morrison have come out and openly stated that they want Australia to lead FinTech in Asia Pacific region. They will probably be pretty aggressive about making that agenda happen. Jessica is also broadcast journalist with the Finance News Network an online TV show. We talk about different publishing platforms and how people are monetising it. People hardly watch real TV shows. Working in blogs, podcasting and visual mediums Jessica thinks blogging has the most impact – because you can read it on the train! Jessica thinks we need to re-look at old school marketing – such as direct mail outs and simply having a chat on the phone. If someone wants to seed a story with Jessica email her directly or approach her by twitter. Tyro built a new payments infrastructure they built a bank solution from ground up – on the cloud. It integrates with POS – which is a big differentiator. Tyro Payments, has been granted a general banking authority by the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) that allows the company to take money on deposit and to advance money to Australian businesses. The bank account offers two-way integration with Xero. The money goes in and can be pushed out. This concept is focused on batch payments. The whole batch is sent through to Tyro bank account, and the Tyro user taps an app on their phone to approve the payment. With Tyro bank there is a clear separation of responsibilities. The administrator person can do all of the admin and back end processing. The small business owner has full control over payments out of the business bank account. He or she is sitting on his yacht in the Bahamas and see the notification come through. He can think I know a payment is coming out today, and click to approve the payment. For this model to suit your business - you have to have enough supplier invoices to benefit from batch payments. Ideal Tyro client is a business who (1) needs a physical EFTPOS device: Retail, Hospitality, Medical, (2) using Xero (3) an iPhone. It takes about 7 – 10 days to set up Tyro. Xero Advisors can train and educate clients around batching, integrating with other add-ons in the eco-space like Receipt Bank. Climb a few hills rather than climb Mt Everest slowly roll out solution improvements for clients. Jessica thinks more Challenger banks like Tyro will emerge. Overcoming trusting people and business online. Initiatives around technology and transparency to help address the culture problem in banking. In Netherlands bankers take a Hippocratic oath. Gender balance in FinTech. FemtechLeaders is a global meetup group for female in this space. Jessica loves small business, technology and finance – it’s all about helping people at the end of the day.   Ideal Tyro client is a business who (1) needs a physical EFTPOS device: Retail, Hospitality, Medical, (2) using Xero (3) an iPhone. With Tyro bank there is a clear separation of responsibilities. From publishing her own #Fintech blog @JessicaEllerm has connected with people across the world. Today’s episode is kindly sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. Scroll to the bottom to download your free white paper The Perfect Advisory Relationship. Resources mentioned in this interview include Tyro Receipt Bank Connect with Jessica Ellerm @JessicaEllerm http://jessicaellerm.com/ Tyro  Thanks for listening! What’s been your biggest learning from today’s episode? Share in the comments below. Don’t miss an episode! Please subscribe and if you love Cloud Stories the Podcast please take a minute to leave a review.  

Today on episode 40 of the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with Matt Wilkinson who is the founder and CEO of Bizink. Bizink helps accountants and bookkeepers grow their practices through their websites and online marketing. Matt has worked with accountants since 2010. He has over 15 years’ experience of digital marketing for his own businesses and other companies as a consultant. Bizink’s mission is to make accountants incredible online. With our websites, content and online marketing, we help accounting firms across the globe win more business, engage their clients and save time. Subscribe to Episode 40 of Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807 Today’s episode is kindly sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. Visit CloudStories.com to download your free white paper The Perfect Advisory Relationship. In this episode I talk to Matt about: How exchange rate affects cloud based businesses selling globally [pricing and costing]. Developing ideas for products and bringing them to market. Accountants and bookkeepers need to define and communicate their unique selling point (USP). If this is sorted – it makes developing an online presence much easier. Content marketing is similar to inbound marketing. Smart marketers want to get involved with the conversations that people are having online and pull people towards the business. Engaging content pulls business owners towards accountants and bookkeepers. This could be in the form of an e-book or an real event. Great example of content marketing ‘Ultimate Guide to Business Process Automation with Zapier‘ produced by Process.St the simple process and workflow management tool. Matt states ‘We are all in business and need to pay bills. Content marketing needs to convert business owners to buyers. For example include a relevant offer, amongst useful content’. It is great to create cool content – but don’t be shy of making appropriate commercial offers. If your content is targeted you are speaking to the right audience. Hopefully you offer the right services for that audience. They should be interested in that and they won’t be offended if you make a proposal to them. Potential clients want to see actionable things that help them grow manage and run their business. Talk to their pain points. Typical evergreen themes for accountants and bookkeepers include cashflow, business planning. It is good to focus on an industry or niche, better to appear strong to a small audience. The more specific you can make it — the more effective it’s going to be. Using fiverr.com for content writing — nuances and technical commentary was completely inaccurate, but beautifully written. Social Media channels for accountants and bookkeeper:LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Linkedin is a must for networking and publishing posts. Twitter is a research channel, to join in on conversations of what is happening in the industry. You can connect with CEO’s of listed companies via twitter. Also you can distribute content via twitter. Facebook: Matt thinks a lot of firms wasting time on FaceBook, and are not getting leads from it. Content marketing is difficult to track, but it is certainly effective. Google adwords and PayPerClick appears above search engine results such as blog posts. Email marketing if you do it right is one of the most effective forms of marketing and you can track the click throughs. Thanks to Receipt Bank for sharing these stats with me prior to the interview! Cisco Visual Networking Index™ (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast (2015 to 2020) forecasts 5.4 B people will have mobile phones by 2020. With that in mind we discussed whether potential accounting clients really go to a mobile device to search for an accountant or bookkeeper? All accountants and bookkeepers need mobile friendly websites. 23% of traffic to BizInk accountant and bookkeepers sites is from mobile devices. Some firms had as high as 51% traffic from mobile device. Test your website is mobile friendly here: https://www.google.com.au/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly If your site is not mobile friendly – then you don’t exist on a mobile device. 5 Common mistakes accountants and bookkeepers make on their website Websites need to be mobile friendly Websites should not simply be a bland and vanilla online brochure – they need to display a USP a unique selling proposition. Websites need to contain content, typically in the form of a blog. The websites need a call to action. The business needs to continue a relationship with site visitors. This can be done by giving away useful content in exchange for an email address. Going forward BizInk is working on lead generation and lead nurturing, and developing content to achieve this. This helps accountants and bookkeepers convert prospects to clients. Today’s episode is kindly sponsored by Spotlight Reporting.  Resources mentioned in this interview Receipt Bank fiverr.com Process.St Linkedin Twitter Facebook Connect with Matt Wilkinson Bizinkonline.com twitter.com/mattwilkinsonNZ nz.linkedin.com/in/mattbizink Bizinkonline.com/blog/ Thanks for listening! What’s been your biggest learning from today’s episode? Share in the comments below. Don’t miss an episode! Please subscribe and if you love Cloud Stories the Podcast please take a minute to leave a review.

Sonia Hickey is here today with Heather Smith, she is a Brisbane Xero Advisor and the author of the Xero for Dummies series of books, as well as other small business books and articles. She works with Xero users, across many industries supporting their businesses to implement cloud based business management solutions; with XERO at the core. She provides XERO Training, Xero Set-Up, Xero Migration, and Xero Support. Heather is a Chartered Certified Accountant, Certified Practising Accountant, Commerce Graduate, Registered BAS Agent, and Accredited Trainer. She produces a popular podcast called Cloud Stories. She manages the Xero Mastermind group which can be found on Facebook, LinkedIn, and currently meets once a month in Brisbane. Want to Find Out More About Heather Smith Cloud Stories Podcast Heather's Website Heather on Facebook Heather on LinkedIn Heather Smith on Twitter Let's listen to this fantastic conversation! Interviewed by: Sonia Hickey Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher | RSS

Sonia Hickey is here today with Heather Smith, she is a Brisbane Xero Advisor and the author of the Xero for Dummies series of books, as well as other small business books and articles. She works with Xero users, across many industries supporting their businesses to implement cloud based business management solutions; with XERO at the core. She provides XERO Training, Xero Set-Up, Xero Migration, and Xero Support. Heather is a Chartered Certified Accountant, Certified Practising Accountant, Commerce Graduate, Registered BAS Agent, and Accredited Trainer. She produces a popular podcast called Cloud Stories. She manages the Xero Mastermind group which can be found on Facebook, LinkedIn, and currently meets once a month in Brisbane. Want to Find Out More About Heather Smith Cloud Stories Podcast Heather's Website Heather on Facebook Heather on LinkedIn Heather Smith on Twitter Let's listen to this fantastic conversation! Interviewed by: Sonia Hickey Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher | RSS

Today on episode 39 of the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with the Richard Francis who’s the founder of Spotlight Reporting. His company have recently released a whitepaper called The Perfect Advisory Relationship. In today’s show I talk with him about this paper and how advisors and business owners can benefit from monthly advisory meetings. Spotlight Reporting provides award-winning reporting, forecasting, consolidation and dashboard reporting tools to progressive accountants, franchises, NFP's and business owners. Our cloud tools allow for integrated data-sets (Xero, QBO, Vend, Google Analytics etc) and exceptional, customisable reports for better decision-making and governance. For people listening overseas they have offices in the UK, US, New Zealand and Australia. So you should definitely be able to find someone to help on board you with this solution. In this episode I talk to Richard about: What Spotlight Reporting does for advisors and business owners Delivering services and attitudes to help transform accounting firms The Perfect Advisory Relationship whitepaper How to run an Advisory / Spotlight Reporting session with clients Blake Oliver gives away Spotlight Reporting dashboard free to all clients – and this in turn generates work for him. Overview of a monthly advisory meeting Establishing understanding and centre yourself on client goals Setting a monthly agenda Ask lots of questions at the start of the meeting Advice over a coffee Richard works through a typical small business example Use a whiteboard to deconstruct and visualise the business model Review pricing and charging for value vs hourly rate Systems and technology reviews Trend and margin analysis, benchmarking Agree on outcome and follow up with action points, including a system that follows up the action points Keep timesheets to monitor budgets   Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. Resources mentioned in this interview The Perfect Advisory Relationship whitepaper Spotlight Reporting Receipt Bank Deputy Xero Trello MinuteDock Connect with Richard Francis Richard@SpotlightReporting.com http://www.spotlightreporting.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/spotlight-reporting-limited http://www.facebook.com/SpotlightReporting https://twitter.com/spotlightrep Thanks for listening! What’s been your biggest learning from today’s episode? Share in the comments below. Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe on iTunes and if you love Cloud Stories the Podcast please take a minute to leave a review. Some of the listeners might know Jason Forbes who’s the Spotlight Reporting Director of Sales here in Australia. I know Jason from my days as a MYOB Trainer back in early 2000. Then Jason became my first Xero account manager. And now he is at Spotlight Reporting – helping advisors and business owners understand their numbers and use them to meet their business goals. P.S. Loved this episode? You’re going to love hearing from David New who is now the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Spotlight Reporting. In episode 25 David talks about building teams and growing businesses in superfast time.

Today on the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with Bernadette Schwerdt. Bernadette is the author of Secrets of Online Entrepreneurs: How Australia's Online Mavericks, Innovators and Disruptors Built Their Businesses ... And How You Can Too. Bernadette and I are both authors with Wiley Publishing. We publish books with real pages! Every month Wiley sends authors a newsletter about what other authors are doing and I when I read Bernadette had written a book on the topic of successful entrepreneurs – I thought it would be of interest to listeners of this podcast. So I approached her and she kindly agreed. We then played calendar games for a few months and finally I’m excited to share with you that she’s on the show! What I learnt from my conversation with Bernadette is that you don’t need a team of expert in what your business does e.g. if you sell wine you don’t need a sommelier, what you need is a hacker and a hustler.  I’ve been thinking about this quite a lot. In episode 11 of Cloud Stories I spoke with Tejaswi Raghurama at Pipemonk and his job title was Growth Hacker. I need to speak with someone and explore the growth hacker phenomena. Bernadette also shared that she learnt through her interviews that businesses needed to operate quickly and on a bootstring. If they were to fail they needed to fail forward.  Failing forward essentially means you turn your mistakes into stepping stones that move you forward. I hope that hearing about how other successful entrepreneurs have succeeded may help you in your own business. Bernadette is the director of The Australian School of Copywriting, an online training company specialising in the science and art of content marketing. She is the author of the best-selling manual “Writing for Profit” and of the new book “Secrets of Online Entrepreneurs” by Wiley Publishing. She is a columnist with the magazine Inside Small Business, an Ambassador Blogger for Australia Post, a lecturer in marketing and communications at leading universities around Australia and is in demand as a speaker on leadership, entrepreneurship and marketing. When she’s not working in marketing, she moonlights as an actor and appears regularly on TV in iconic shows such as Neighbours, Winners and Losers, Jack Irish and others. In fact I was watching Jack Irish the other night and a lawyer appeared who sounded exactly like Bernadette and I checked the credits and it was her! Jack Irish is a great Australian drama on the ABC at the moment – if you have the chance to watch it. Bernadette’s business The Australian School of Copywriting was formed in 2001, and has trained thousands of students in the art of copywriting. Specialising in providing real-world, practical techniques, students learn how copywriting can not only benefit their small business, but how it can become a main source of income. Here’s an extract from Secrets of Online Entrepreneurs – that I read during the podcast: Morris’s top 10 trends to watch: Lawyers/accountants/service industry Statutory paperwork and routine regulatory forms will all be completed digitally by 2025, leaving service providers to earn their fees, by selling their wisdom, intuition and feelings. As the sea of data rises and possibilities exponentially grow, we will be crying out for wise people to make sense and purpose out of all of it for us. We’ll be searching for experts who can let us know – in advance of use even knowing we need to know it – what to do about it or with it. That’s tomorrow’s service industry’s goldmine. That’s all about understanding and accessing accurate timely big data interpret it, analyse it and communicate it. That’s one of the reasons I invited Geni Whitehouse to be a guest on the show – episode 36 of Cloud Stories – to speak about the importance of communicating in everyday language that small business people understand. Today’s episode is kindly sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. I wanted to share with you a conversation I had during the week. I was speaking with a bookkeeper who had many freelance professionals from the same industry all on Xero. I explained to her that she could use the Spotlight Multi product and she could suck in all of the Xero organisations, and doing that she could rank them, visualise them, benchmark and consolidate them. Breaking that down, she could see the comparisons between revenue earned against cost of sales whether they were in line with the other business and potentially whether there were exceptions that needed further investigation. Using a tool like Spotlight Multi can help you sell your wisdom, your intuition and your feelings. You can graphically look at something and quickly see exceptions that can lead you to understand and react to trends in the business. This in turns improves your ability to manage the business.   Laugh like a drain   In this episode I talk to Bernadette about: Mad Men television series What is copywriting E-books vs books with real pages Importance of all employees to have an online presence which incorporates what they want to be known for How to develop high quality content and re-purpose it across platforms When an online business needs a copywriter How should a business engage a copywriter 7 steps to create a successful online business: purpose, people, planning, profit, positioning, profile, promotion Critical to understand the actual business you are in How Malcolm Turnbull made his millions – it may surprise you! The two people every online business needs is a hacker and a hustler Don’t be obsessed with perfection Fast and quick, think fast and fail forward  Resources mentioned in this interview https://www.shoesofprey.com/ http://au.whogivesacrap.org/  Connect with Bernadette Schwerdt Info@copyschool.com copyschool.com bernadetteschwerdt.com.au     Connect with Heather Smith Click here to sign up to my newsletter http://bit.ly/SignUp4Newsletter Listen to my podcast : http://cloud-stories.com/  Read my latest blog post : http://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/ Visit my website : www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com  Book time with me heathersmithau.gettimely.com/book   Subscribe to my YouTube channel : https://www.YouTube.com/ANISEConsulting Follow me on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU Join my FaceBook page : https://www.facebook.com/HeatherSmithAU  Connect with me on LinkedIn : http://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU Add me to your circle on Google + https://plus.google.com/+HeatherSmithAU/posts       

Today on the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with the Lisa Martin owner and manager at GoFi8ure. The business offers one-on-one or one-to-many training at your doorstep or in-house. The tagline is ‘get training and become a Xero Hero’. You'll recall I interviewed Lisa in episode 20 of Cloud Stories. In that episode we explored her Xero journey. I asked her to come back on the show - so we could discuss how a business could offer Xero training. Lisa and I both have a gazillion years of Xero training experience between us. We are passionate about delivering high quality training and helping people who want to DIY Bookkeeping. We have a candid discussion about all aspects of offering Xero training. You'll hear about what works and what doesn't work for us, and how we can bring real world experience into Xero training. I personally think what’s great about the interview – is we do things differently – so you get to hear different options – and perhaps decide what’s best for you in your business. If you've ever thought of offering Xero training as an additional service in your business - then you must listen to this episode.  Please note - we're independent of Xero - and all opinions (and we have a lot of them) are our own. In this episode I talk to Lisa about: Why we offer Xero training Qualities of a good trainer – what to look for in a good trainer Importance of communication, plain English and common sense skills Difficulties of introductory training Find out where students are at prior to training Icebreakers to use before running a training session Understanding what the student hopes to get out of training Asking open ended questions The importance of monitoring other people presenting – and understanding how people learn How to improve your training skills How to structure training classes How to use Xero as a training platform What contents covered in a Xero training class Online vs In person vs Classroom Training How to make a room conducive to training Business tools used to help run training classes How to promote Xero training classes Always ask students for a testimonial and ask them to tell their own colleagues about the training they had with you Thoughts around what Xero’s stipulations should be around Xero trainers. Please note - we're independent of Xero Surveys and feedback following training courses Education empowers Don’t be afraid that you’ll train you out of a client for you – Lisa Martin Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. One of the tools that you can use within Spotlight Reporting is Spotlight Forecasting. Spotlight Forecasting enables you to look ahead with clarity. You can find out more information by visiting http://www.spotlightreporting.com/future. It includes a budget creator, a three-way forecasting tool and a scenario builder. It seamlessly integrates with Xero so you can have it up and running very fast.  Please visit the show sponsors. At the end of the show I call-out to Phil Burnell who left a 5 star review for Spotlight Reporting at the Xero community. He says about Spotlight Reporting “Great reporting tool that provides a high quality range of additional reporting that really will make a difference to any business that uses it!”   Resources mentioned in this interview Xero Spotlight Reporting Connect with Lisa Martin   https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisamartingofi8ure https://twitter.com/GoFi8ure http://www.gofi8ure.co.nz/xero-training-centre http://www.sayitlikeitis.co.nz/ xero@gofi8ure.co.nz   Thanks for listening! What’s been your biggest learning from today’s episode? Share in the comments below.   Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe on iTunes and if you love Cloud Stories the Podcast please take a minute to leave a review.   P.S. Loved this episode? You’re going to love hearing about Lisa’s Xero journey on episode 20.

Highlights of my conversation with Steven Shelley  Zero time theft From solving an internal problem in an aerospace company to launching Deputy Solving staff rostering in over forty countries Global growth and looking for staff Lesson learnt: Build a product specific to a wider audience Subscribe to Episode #22 of Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807 I’d like to start by asking you Steve, what does a typical day look like for Steve Shelley? Steve:             So in the last few years Heather I’ve had quite a tumultuous time. I’ve actually been building a new house which has taken a lot of my time. Building a new team at Deputy, building Deputy and a whole series of other things that I’ve been working on in the background as well, so it’s been a very hectic last four or five years for me. But a typical day is a day which is literally jam packed. I don’t have much time to spare at all which is I guess how I’ve been for many years though, it seems to be working for me. I try and get to work as soon as I can and I’ll stay there as long as I can, I like to do longer days with less days if I can at work, I just find that if I can focus and get the things that I need to get done I’m happy within myself. Heather:        Okay that’s really interesting less days and longer days and that you’re not working virtually. So I’ve been in the industry and I’ll bring this up right now, I’ve been in the industry for a long time and a lot of people talk to me ‘cause of what I do and everyone loves Deputy, accountants and small businesses love Deputy, everyone loves Deputy, I never heard a bad thing about it. So you’re doing something really good and your team are doing something really good, so you should be really proud of it because it’s a great solution and everyone loves it.   Mentions Deputy - http://www.deputy.com/ Deputy Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/deputyapp Timely - https://www.gettimely.com/

Highlights of my conversation with Saul Colt Ruffling feathers by being interesting, original and fun: the story behind the cloud writing about a cloud company and the levitating man Word of Mouth marketing insights Marketing advice for accountants and bookkeepers wanting to attract the right type of client How exhibitors can maximise their investment at the Denver Xerocon conference and beyond Denver Xerocon 2015 Social media tools for professionals. Subscribe to Episode14 of Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807 Transcript Heather:        Hello, this is Heather Smith here and you’re listening to Episode 14 of Cloud Stories. I’m very excited today because I interviewed Saul Colt who is the Chief Evangelist for Xero, so we have that interview coming up. I just wanted to quickly touch base with you about some of the things I’ve been doing since the last episode. I think I went down with a sore throat again which stops me recording the podcasts. I have just got back from Auckland Xerocon and it was in a stunning location on the wharf of Auckland. Kind of interestingly, over Christmas I was on one of those massive cruise ships, The Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Sea, and we actually cruised right into Auckland and docked there which is kind of amazing to be able to dock right beside a main city. The conference was held at something called a Viaduct which was just to the left of the wharf, which was actually on the wharf just a bit left from where we were. I actually stayed at an airbnb accommodation, so that was wonderful, sort of a lady letting out her studio apartment for a few days, and was able to walk to the viaduct for the event. It was massive, so much going on, the weather was wonderful and crisp and clear and beautiful skies, and there were so many things going on for the time I was there. It was really interesting for me to see Xero in the Xero community as an Australian girl, the sort of New Zealand take on it, and not knowing New Zealand perhaps as well as people do, I did get confused by a few of the little things that happened. I think the Kiwibank had a dance video constantly playing, and on the first day of the conference was International Dance Day. I went up and asked them why they had the dance video playing and they couldn’t explain to me why they had the dance video playing. I said, “Well, maybe it’s for International Dance Day, and them and we agreed that it was for International Dance Day. But it turned out that Kiwibank have something known as the Independence Dance which is a YouTube video sensation that is going viral. New Zealanders will know about that and maybe you want to go and check that out on YouTube. Anyway, if you’re interested in sort of my synopsis of what happened at Auckland Xerocon, you can go and read about it on Digital First. It’s called “An Aussie Girl’s Perspective of Auckland Xerocon 2015”. You can just Google that. The other thing that has happened is I’m not guest blogging on the TradeGecko blog. TradeGecko are an inventory cloud software solution. I wrote an article for them on “Xero Inventory Management Versus TradeGecko Inventory Software”, which is very topical now that Xero has tracked inventory as a feature within their solution. I talk about what does this mean for the inventory add-on solutions out there? Does it mean they’ve got tumbleweeds blowing through their office? Actually, my take on it, was this is actually a good thing, this is actually going to take people … step people up to the next level and they will use Xero tracked inventory but then they’ll sort of grow their business to actually need these inventory add-on solutions, and there’s a lot that they have to offer. So please go and visit my blog there. It’s titled “Xero Inventory Management Versus TradeGecko Inventory Software”, and I shall be blogging with them on a monthly basis which I’m quite excited about. Of course, if any other person in the Xero ecosystem is interested in me blogging for them, please get in contact. Finally, my other thing that I wanted to share with you is I’ve just uploaded two hours of free training on Australian Xero Payroll for Australia users. The level is basic. It’s all about setting up your payroll, and then I run through three pay runs. So please go to my YouTube channel which is called ANISE Consulting and you’ll see it labelled there, “Free Training in Xero Payroll”, which is subscribe to the channel and you can learn about Australian payroll if that’s something that you’ve not sort of dived into. But anyway, let’s get back to my interview, my guest today, I’m very, very excited, today I’m speaking with Saul Colt. He is the chief evangelist for Xero, the co-host for the Xero Hour podcast, North America’s best word-of-mouth marketeer, and the smartest man in the world. I started by asking him …

Highlights of my conversation with Steven Renwick Offering cloud credit control and accounts receivable solutions to small business turning Oxford MBA projects into a cloud success story utilising the crowd equity funding platform seedrs to launch Satago partnering with Experian to offer free access to credit data on UK businesses Subscribe to Episode # of Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807 Transcript Heather:        Hello and welcome back to Cloud stories. Today I’m interviewing Steven Renwick. Steven is the founder and CEO of Satago. Satago is a clever credit control and accounts receivable software that helps companies get paid faster. Satago connects to user’s accounting software and takes over the process of chasing customers for payments as debts age through automated statements and escalating email reminders. Included with Satago is free credit information and payment behaviour data about all of your customers, allowing you to determine which customers you can offer credit to and on which you should concentrate your collection efforts. I first met Steven at Sydney Xerocon, and that’s where he gave me blue sunglasses which you frequently see me wearing in pictures from Xerocons and Xero events, and there are a few of us around there sporting the Satago blue sunglasses. I started by asking Steven, what did you like to do when you were a 12 year old? Steven:          Wow, as a 12 year old. I was very much into fantasy/war gaming. That’s like these lead models you get. You paint them up and then you play battles against each other or you go into dungeons and explore. So me and my brothers used to play that quite a bit. Did you ever manage to sell those models for money? Steven:          A few of them I have but most of them I’ve still got in my parent’s attic. They’re now worth quite a bit of money because they’re all out of production. Heather:        My son keeps trying to convince me to buy them, which he does, he buys them and he’s like, “They’ll make money. They’ll make us money.” It sounds like you’re on the same street there. Steven:          Yes, could be. Can you explain to our listeners essentially what your business, Satago, does? Steven:          Sure, Satago is an add-on for Xero. What it is; is clever control and accounts receivable software. We connect into your Xero account and then we basically take over the process of chasing your customers for payment through automated monthly statements and through customised escalating email reminders which get more serious in tone as the debt gets older. We also automate the sending of hard copy payment demand letters and we also get actual credit managers on the phone for you to call up your customers for payment. You can either be using it as an in-house tool to improve your own credit control, or to effectively outsource your credit control. Something else we have is credit data on companies. Once you’re integrated with us, you can see the credit score, suggested credit limit and the payment behaviour data for your customers. In terms of the credit data, is that England specific or UK specific, or everywhere global? Steven:          At the moment it’s only UK specific. We actually only launched that a couple of weeks ago. It’s through a partnership with Experian, which is the big credit data company. It’s quite expensive and took a wee while to negotiate the deal. So we really need to see what the uptake is for that in the UK first of all before we consider doing it around the rest of the world. What’s interesting with the credit data is that the quality of it varies greatly between countries depending on what sort of statutory rules there are for releasing information. One company might have good coverage in Australia but not in the UK and vice versa. So we have to look at it on the country-by-country basis. Heather:        Absolutely. What has been the customer reaction to that new feature addition? Steven:          The phrase that kept on getting used is “this is a no brainer” because we’ve actually made it free to integrate … it’s free to integrate with Satago and it’s free to see the top level Experian data. So everybody gets to see the credit ratings and the credit limits and the days beyond terms data for all their customers. Even if you don’t use Satago for chasing customers because it’s not always necessary, you should at least know their credit data. It’s been really good so far. I think, on a daily basis, between about 30-50% of our users are looking at the credit data. Heather:        I’m sure for a lot of small business owners, this is actually the first time they’ve looked at credit data. Would you agree with that? Steven:          Yes, exactly. That’s why I wanted to do it because not enough small businesses look at this sort of data. When it comes to good credit control, although we started Satago and the whole ‘chasing you customer’ payment idea, the first real bedrock of credit control is knowing your customer. That means the very basics like knowing where they are actually based, knowing their real trading name, and knowing the very basic credit data. We’ve just made the very top level data for free because often small businesses don’t really know what they’re looking at when they look at that full credit report. So just the top level data but if you do want the full credit report, you can buy those through Satago as well. Heather:        Okay, sensational. It’s a really interesting add-on and I think from a small business owner’s perspective, they weren’t able to afford it in the past to even consider going down the route because for every new creditor that you took on board, that would be a costly exercise to do a full assessment of them, especially when you’re starting out and your small and you’re trying to grow. It’s like, “Anyone who wants to be my client can be my client.” Steven:          Exactly. I mean if you’re thinking about giving someone a £20,000 line of credit, it’s probably worth spending the £15 or £20 on a full credit report but if you’re doing large numbers of clients, that’s maybe not quite so feasible, so just having the top level data for free is very sensible. Having it integrated with your Xero account makes it even easier. You don’t have to go in there and start searching for all your customers because we’ve already matched it up for you. Heather:        Absolutely. I think it’s an excellent idea. I used to work for a company that standard payment terms were 18 months but the people selling to them didn’t realise that. They were like, “Yes, we’re a big company. That’s our standard.” So it makes things very difficult. Sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you off. Steven:          I was going to say, 18 months is a bit crazy. That’s the way you put your own suppliers out of business. Heather:        Yes, that was the industry normal for that particular industry. Steven:          Okay. Why did you start Satago? Steven:          I don’t know what industry you were talking about. Maybe it’s the construction industry because that was my family business background. In Scotland, my dad started a business which ended up installing and maintaining passenger lifts or elevators. Heather:        Like Schindler’s Lifts. Steven:          Exactly, they were the big competition. Heather:        Oh were they? Sorry. Steven:          Yes, slightly bigger than my family business, nevertheless they compete. That’s in the construction industry and they’re at the end of the supply chain more or less. I kind of grew up with this issue of late payment. My dad would come home and say, “This contractor has not paid us yet for this job we’ve done,” and there would some pretty big bills we were waiting on, like £20,000-£30,000 at a time, when they’d finish a job. The payments would drag on for weeks and weeks and weeks and months and months. Then occasionally these customers would just go into bankruptcy and leave you with this £30,000 invoice that you can’t pay. I always thought it was really unfair how the big guys treated the little guys and I kind of wanted to do something about it for a long, long time. Then years later, I was just thinking about what industries are ripe for disruption. I looked at the credit data industry and I thought, “Well, you’ve got the big guys like Experian and Dun and Bradstreet but nothing new has really happened there for a long time.” I thought, “Well, why don’t we take advantage of the internet and all these new cloud accounting software companies that are coming up, and build a way of encouraging companies to anonymously share data about when their customers pay them versus agreed terms.” I thought, “It will be a bit like EBay where the buyer rates the seller and the seller rates the buyer.” So basically I actually investigated this idea on my MBA at Oxford. I spent a year doing all the usual business school stuff but at every opportunity possible, I would investigate this idea I had. So was it a project? Was it an assessable project? Steven:          Yes, I gamed the system a little bit and used it for every accessible project possible which meant I got to have my classmates working with me. I got what would otherwise be quite expensive consultants, these guys were used to charging thousands of pounds a day, but because it was a project for school they were doing it for free. Heather:        Sensational. Steven:          I used it for a few projects, used it for a few competitions, and did quite well from it but I didn’t manage … I’m talking by the end of the MBA I would have convinced someone to give me enough money to build a prototype of it just to test the idea out and get started. I didn’t manage in the end, so I had to go off and get a job. Heather:        You’ve mentioned Oxford, so I’ve got to stop and ask you for our listeners who perhaps are going to visit Oxford. Steven, what’s your favourite pub in Oxford and what beer do you suggest they try? I just know that if you were at Oxford Uni, you’re bound to know a good pub there. Steven:          Yes, Oxford is overflowing with good pubs. I’ll give you two to try. On Broad Street, there’s one called the White Horse. It’s very small. It’s quite compact. It sells a lot of good beers. One I would recommend is White Horse – it’s from a relatively local brewery. Heather:        So White Horse selling White Horse. You just said the name of the pub was White Horse? Steven:          Yes, the pub is called White Horse, I think coincidentally, because the white horse is a famous prehistoric chalk drawing on one of the hills in the Cotswolds. Heather:        Yes, in Denver. Okay. Sorry. Steven:          Or in the Cotswolds. Heather:        Devon not Denver. But anyway, yes, I’ll take the Cotswolds then. Steven:          Yes, so the brewery and the pub is called that. Another one you should look for is called the Turf which is Oxford’s worst kept secret. It’s down some secret little alleyway but then there’s this beautiful big pub which gets very busy because actually everybody knows about it. Heather:        Fantastic. I’m sure some of the listeners will venture there. Steven:          They should. @HeatherSmithAU @GoFi8ure just for you Heather: sunnies, ginger beard, Tower of London and the Shard in one pic: pic.twitter.com/gZZw2WtCD9 — Satago (@satagonet) March 4, 2015   So in your journey of developing Satago, what obstacles have you met along the way? Steven:          Well, the first one was raising money. In that respect we’re a normal tech start up, not unlike Xero a few years ago itself, except this is my first company so I didn’t have previous successes with which to finance this one. We were actually quite fortunate in a way, that one of my classmates from the MBA, a year or two before me, actually founded a company in the UK called Seedrs which was basically the world’s first genuine crowd equity funding platform. Everybody will have heard of things like Kickstarter from the US where people crowd fund books or projects and stuff like that. Heather:        Yes. Steven:          Now the difference with Kickstarter is you’re basically just paying in advance for a product. You’re paying for a product to be developed, then you get the product. What’s different with the crowd equity funding is that people are actually buying a bit of your company, so they actually hold shares. When this platform launched I thought “Okay, I’ll put my idea for Satago on there and I’ll see if I can just raise £30,000 to build a prototype,” and it worked. Within two weeks I had 60 people had invested anything from £10 to £5,000. I had my £5,000 to go off and try and build version 1 of Satago. Heather:        Wow. So you’ve got multiple investors in the company? Steven:          Yes, I mean technically the way it works is that I actually only have one investor listed on my capital table because if I had 60, that would be a mess. So Seedrs actually manages it so that they’ve got like 60 investors in a special vehicle they have but technically Seedrs, the investment company, is the only investor in Satago. But really there are 60 different people who all have rights to the shares. Heather:        Okay, that’s really interesting. So Seedrs is still in existence? Steven:          Yes, it’s doing very well. Heather:        Okay. Steven:          They’re funding millions of pounds every month in companies throughout Europe. I think they’re just getting started in the US. And it’s an experience reflecting on it, that you took that route? Steven:          Yes, I’m very happy with it because what I think is very important about this crowd equity funding side of things is that it makes start-ups accessible to people. If you read the conventional guidance on how to do a start-up, the first thing they always say is, “You should raise your first bit of money from friends and family.” Now, I don’t know about everyone else’s friends and family but there’s no way I was going to manage to get £30,000 from my friends and family because they’re just not that wealthy. I think the people that make that suggestion perhaps do have the wealthy friends and family, and forget that 95% of people don’t have friends and family with £30,000 lying around. For me, it almost democratises doing start-ups a little bit, which I think makes it accessible to a broader range of people, which is very important. Yes, it was a great experience for me. There’s no other way I would have got that money so quickly. Heather:        Absolutely. That’s really exciting. I actually hadn’t heard of that company. I always watch the Kickstarters and the Indiegogo’s, etc. It’s always very interesting to watch. What is the most rewarding aspect of being involved in Satago Steven? Steven:          I guess the most rewarding bit is when you get positive feedback from your users. You’ll have people just sign up, and out of the blue, without you even having spoken to them at all, they’ll get in touch with you and say, “This is amazing. I’ve just sent my first batch of statements or reminders,” or something “and all these people promised to pay me.” That’s great. It’s real internet business. It’s complete strangers somewhere on the internet, somewhere in the world, emailing me to say this thing that you’ve been spending the last two years building has actually made a difference to them. That’s fantastic. Heather:        Absolutely. I signed up recently to the product to have a look inside the product and one of the things I really liked about it was that you have the option to set the emails and the reminder notices so they go out during the week rather than on the weekend. That’s always really important to me because I know that in this cloud based, automated world, people kind of … and I watch them and they’re just working 24/7, which is fine, however you need to have a life as well. To me, I don’t think there’s much of a point for the reminders to go out on the weekend - obviously different industries, etc. It is such a massive time saver for such a small amount of money, and it’s a massive relief to know that that’s actually working in the background. It sounds like you’ve actually got all of the different elements in place because a lot of small business owners just want to be passionately involved in their business and they want to passionately have this relationship with the client or the customer, and they don’t want to say, “Hey, by the way, you owe me money.” Because I think a lot of people would do it for free if they could do. Steven:          Yes, that’s the thing because we’ve always been saying people start businesses because they love what they’re doing and they’re very good at selling their product or their business. It’s what they love and what they’re excited about. But people often forget that about a third of your businesses function is probably doing credit control and just getting the money in at the end of the day. A lot of people don’t even realise that that’s ever going to be an issue and quite often they only do begin to realise when it’s almost too late. It’s really one of these things you need to get in place really early on. Heather:        Yes. Steven:          Using Satago just makes it easy, takes it out of their hands of having to think about it too much, and it’s all done professionally. Heather:        It is done professionally. As you said before, it is a bit of a no brainer because I always kind of equate the cost to how much is that in minutes of your own time. So over a month period, it’s like nothing at all. Plus it’s not nasty chasing. You can do it very politely and very professionally and still have that in place. I know that clients say to me after a while, “Oh, I actually wait for the reminder and then I pay you because I know it’s coming.” It’s almost like their payment cash flow system that they work on. Steven:          Yes. So how do you go about acquiring additional customers for your business? Steven:          Well, to be honest, as an early stage start-up, we’re still experimenting and finding out what the best way of acquiring users is. We work with a number of accounting firms and bookkeeping firms, a kind of partner programme similar to that which Xero has itself. That seems to be quite popular. Then to be honest, a lot of our users come direct through the website. I think a lot of them come from the Xero add-on store and I think our organic search engine rankings are quite decent. We have a lot of people signing up directly, direct end users, and what we have a lot of is people sign up wanting the full credit control service. They want somebody on the phone for them as well. When they do that, we refer them to one of the partners that we’ve got already, and they effectively become the outsourced credit management company for them. They will be doing full service, so they’ll manage their Satago account and they’ll be the one that decides who to phone, who needs to be chased through the courts, that sort of thing. Heather:        Fantastic, so they can just get on with running their business. Two questions come out of that for me. What has been Satago’s secret for generating enviable press coverage in the Guardian, Forbes, Independent, etc? You’ve done very well that way. Steven:          We put a big effort on that in the beginning of the year. We came up with some interesting stories. We did some research amongst our users and even people who weren’t users of Satago, just asking them what were the excuses they’d heard of for late payment. Heather:        So you shared funny stories of why people …? Steven:          Yes, kind of interesting stories about late payment because in the UK, it’s a very hot topic just now. It’s probably one of the … at least the top three concerns of small business owners is late payment, and the government has been very good about trying to do something about it. Barely a week goes by without there being some sort of story about late payment in the small business press. I just tried to help out with our own bits of research, what we’d found so far, and the journalist seemed to quite like it. They were all very willing to write about us. Heather:        Sensational. It’s actually really difficult in this whole ecosystem, that a lot of the subjects are quite dry, to find an angle that’s actually of interest and to exploit it. People love those stories of the dog ate my invoice, etc. But those stories certainly are of interest and your coverage is amazing. So people, if you are looking for exposure, go and take a look and read at the Satago media coverage that they’ve actually had. Now, I’ll also ask you, you talked about the partner programme. How does your partner programme work? Steven:          If you become a Satago partner, we will give you a free account for Satago … it’s for accountants and bookkeepers mostly. Heather:        Yes, and cloud integrators probably as well. Steven:          Yes, so we’ve got a few cloud integrators there as well. You get a free account to use yourself to chase your customers as much as you want. Then after you have a certain number of users … we have two different things we do. We will either give you revenue share which you can either take as revenue or pass on the savings onto your customers. But we’ve also partnered, or about to partner, with … Heather:        Is this exclusive news? Steven:          It is actually, yes. Heather:        Very good. Steven:          We haven’t actually started yet but there’s a charity called Buy One Give One (B1G1)    . Have you heard of that? Heather:        Well, you explain what yours is in case I explain something different. Steven:          So Buy One Give One (B1G1)    is I suppose a charity which encourages you to give away a little bit of your profits I guess, or a little bit of revenue for every time you sell something. Heather:        Oh okay. Steven:          It could be something as small as: every time you sell a cup of coffee, you give 10 pence to this charity. The idea is a large number of these relatively small donations add up to something quite significant. Heather:        Absolutely. Steven:          The chairman of Buy One Give One (B1G1)   is a gentleman called Paul Dunn who is quite famous in the accounting profession, I think particularly in the UK. He now lives in Singapore but he is a quite famous speaker. I saw him speak at an accounting industry event called 20/20 in the UK, and he kind of inspired us to get in touch with this charity and do this kind of partnership. We haven’t started it yet but what we’re going to do is give accountants and bookkeepers the options of either taking this revenue share or giving that revenue share to Buy One Give One (B1G1)  where it can have an impact on people around the world. Heather:        Absolutely, that’s a sensational idea. Excellent. Steven:          Thank you. Heather:        So this is my cave man question for not understanding how technology works, okay. Steven:          I’ll do my best. Heather:        Well, you should be the genius here and this is me not understanding it. Satago offers three different pricing levels which reflect the number of invoices that the solution will chase at each of the different pricing levels. In this automated world, how much extra effort is there in a solution to chase more than one invoice? Steven:          You mean from Satago’s point of view? Heather:        Yes. I didn’t understand … and you’re not alone in this but I didn’t understand if you’re chasing one invoice, why is it more effort … because in this automated world, why is it more difficult to chase two invoices than to chase 5,000 invoices? Steven:          Really from our point of view, there’s no difference in effort. There’s a slight difference in that we have these automated … we also send letters. We give you different number of letters you can send but that’s really by-the-by. I mean to be quite honest with you, it doesn’t make any difference … it doesn’t make much difference if we’re chasing 1,000 invoices or 10 invoices in a month. This is what you would call in your MBA class ‘price discrimination’. In an ideal world, we’ve got to make money. We would be charging each of our users £100 a month or something decent like that so we can make a lot of money from each of our users. But the reality is that the person that’s only sending 10 invoices a month is never going to pay £100 a month, whereas the person that is sending 1,000 invoices a month has a much greater need and is more willing to pay for it. It’s more of an economic discrimination rather than any kind of technical discrimination at all. Heather:        Very good, I feel like I’ve been professor'd by the Oxford scholar. Thank you for that. Steven:          Pleasure. So is Satago based in London? Steven:          We are based in London. That’s right. Heather:        Okay. You’re in Berlin at the moment. Satago is based in London. Steven:          I am today, yes. What’s the internet connection like in London then for you guys? Steven:          The internet connection? Heather:        Yes. Steven:          It’s okay. It seems pretty fast to me. Heather:        Is it? Okay. I don’t know whether it was going to be fast or not, so that’s sensational. Steven:          We often get told we’re lagging behind the rest of the world. I think our investment in infrastructure perhaps isn’t the best but we’re never going to be as fast as the Estonians or something like that, who seem to be all very wired up. Heather:        Yes. You recently featured on the cover of XU Magazine. What was the modelling experience like for you? Steven:          That was a great day, yes. I was with Colin from Float and Michael from Receipt Bank. Heather:        Michael from Receipt Bank, yes. Steven:          Yes, it was really cool. I guess that was inspired by the Xerocon down in Sydney where I think the three of us were wearing our kilts. We did a shoot … that was actually at the Receipt Bank offices, had a really great photographer along, and just trying to dream up what would actually make good photos. The Receipt Bank office is quite neat in that they had these airline seats there for some reason. Heather:        As you do. Steven:          As you do. Yes, we drew on some windows onto the chalkboard behind. You may have noticed the windows that were drawn on were square, which any airplane engineer will tell you is a terrible idea. Nevertheless, it made a decent photo, and yes it was a lot of fun. What effect did it have for you and your business at London Xerocon with your face all over the magazine being handed out to all the attendees and delegates? Steven:          I guess a lot of people did comment on it because I actually wore my kilt to Xerocon. Heather:        Yes, I saw. There were three of you in your kilts wasn’t there? Steven:          There was meant to be but we failed. I actually ordered some kilts to get delivered from Scotland down to London so my two colleagues, Adam and Florin, could also wear the kilts and we’d make a bit of a theme of it but the couriers completely stuffed up. I use the G-rated ‘stuffed up’ there. Heather:        Yes. Steven:          And completely failed to deliver them to us, so it was just me. But yes, it was great. It was really cool being on the cover. Funnily enough, I was standing next to the XU Magazine stand talking to someone and he says, “You look a bit like the guy on the front of the magazine but it’s not you is it?” I was standing right next to it wearing a kilt. It was like, “It really is me.” Heather:        In the exact same kilt? Steven:          In the exact same kilt, yes. Heather:        Goodness. Excellent. It’s always fun to be at those events when you’re such a star from the magazine. Steven:          It is indeed. It helps. So Satago was reviewed by the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers. They did a big review of your product, produced a very nice and detailed review of the product. What did that mean for you? Steven:          Well, it was just great to have an independent validation, a proper audit. All too often, companies of course will get launched and you’ll get a lot of noise but you won’t have anyone actually take a proper deep dive from anyone that’s properly independent. What was really good was that also shortly after that, we exhibited at the ICBs Bookkeepers Summit in London. That was like 300-400 bookkeepers turned up for this conference and we were literally mobbed for every minute of the two days we were there. Every time they had a break between sessions, we would have bookkeepers three or four deep at our stand, so it was quite phenomenal. Heather:        Excellent. Well, we’re having the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers annual conference in Brisbane this month. Steven:          Oh, I wish I could be there. Heather:        What a shame you didn’t make it out for that. Steven:          That would have been great. Heather:        Brisbane is far nicer than Sydney too. Steven:          Really, I’ll take your word for that. I’ve got relatives there as well I need to visit. Maybe I can pop round. Heather:        Tax deductable holiday to Brisbane. Steven:          Sure. So what does the future hold for Satago? Steven:          Well, we’ve got a lot more cool features coming out. Our main user interface is going to have a new dashboard on it fairly soon, a lot more on the reporting side of things. We’re going to make more use of the credit data. We’re going to start trying to be a bit more proactive on the sales and marketing side of things because we haven’t really … apart from going to the conferences, we haven’t actually spent on marketing yet. We’re going to start experimenting with that. We’ll also have to have a look at being a bit more proactive in the international side of things. To date we’ve mostly concentrated on the UK market, largely because we knew that the Experian data was only going to be valid in the UK. But if the demand is there, then I would really like to source data for the New Zealand and Australian markets, because they’re obviously where Xero is most strong, and see how that goes. Heather:        Yes, absolutely. I found when I went in and explored and worked my way round the Satago Solution, it was very clean and an easy to understand interface. Steven:          Thank you. Heather:        I do encourage anyone who’s listening, who’s interested in the product, to jump in and take a look. I reckon you’ll be up and running within about 8 minutes. Steven:          Yes, should be. Heather:        Time to boil a cup of tea and get it going. Steven, one final question for you, what advice would you have for your 18 year old self? Steven:          Ah, my 18 year old self. It’s a tricky one because I had this weird career path where I started off doing biochemistry. I did a PhD in genetics and now I’m working in internet businesses. Off the top, you might just say, “Skip the biochemistry and PhD bit and go straight into business because I’m not using the genetics anymore.” But the reality is that that path led me to where I am now, so I wouldn’t change anything about that. Maybe what I’d say is, “Start learning German in university because you’re going to end up living in Berlin and not have a clue what anyone is saying.” So there you go. “Learn a language.” Heather:        Didn’t I see you tweeting the other day that you wanted someone to subtitle a Finish programme or something like that? Steven:          Norwegian. My girlfriend is from Norway, so we quite often end up watching this chat show, this Norwegian chat show. When they have guests from English, it’s all in English but a lot of the time it’s in Norwegian or Swedish, and I just don’t have a clue what they’re talking about. Heather:        Absolutely. No, learning a language is very hard. With your genetics background, is any of it applicable? Is it the discipline that’s applicable or the knowledge applicable to what you’re doing now? Steven:          I think what I probably don’t appreciate enough is how it trains you to be inquisitive in the correct way. I don’t literally use any of the genetics or anything like that but it does help me, I think, to understand some of the technical side of what we’re doing and to ask the right questions. A lot of what you’re doing with a start-up business is constant experiments which is what PhD is. You’re testing out this new feature. You’re testing out this marketing channel. You’re testing if I change the headline from A to B, do I get 5% more signup? So it’s a little bit like doing a PhD except almost the stake is about 10 times higher. Heather:        Yes, I guess so. Absolutely. I guess you are … rather than assuming you know the answer, you’re testing it because it is really easy to sit there and go, “Everyone thinks the exact same as me. We should just do it this way,” rather than what you’re saying. Doing a PhD isn’t something you accidentally fall over, wake up one day and have done. That was a huge commitment to do, to then move into something else. But there does seem to be a few people out there who have done that. I just got an email that the head of Dell was a zoologist to start off … Dell Australia started off as a zoologist. I’m like, Okay …” Steven:          I’m in good company then. Heather:        You are. Thank you so much for sharing your time with us and sharing your insights about building your business and what it can do for people. I really, really appreciate it. Steven:          My pleasure Heather. Heather:        Thank you. End of Transcript Mentions Satago - https://www.Satago.co.uk/ Xero - https://www.Xero.com/ Experian - http://www.Experian.co.uk/ Dun and Bradstreet - http://www.dnb.com/ Seedrs - https://www.seedrs.com/ Kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/ Indiegogo - https://www.indiegogo.com/ Buy One Give One - https://www.b1g1.com/buy1give1/ XU Magazine - http://xumagazine.com/ Float - http://floatapp.com/ Receipt Bank - http://www.receipt-bank.com/ Dell - http://www.dell.com/

Ep.12 Barry Dowling – TransferMate Global Payments – Minimising costs and complexities associated with foreign currency payments seamlessly from with Xero Highlights of my conversation with Barry Dowling ·        Spending time to understand your client ·        Using client feedback to tweak the solution offered ·        Achieving the milestone of $5US billion in transfers ·        Using referral links as a marketing strategy Subscribe to Episode 12 of Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807 Transcript Heather:        Heather Smith here. Welcome to Cloud Stories. Today I’m talking with Barry Dowling. Barry Dowling is the cofounder of TransferMate Global Payments. He is dedicated to making the process of booking foreign currency payments seamless, easier, faster and cheaper. TransferMate Global Payments is a global Fintech company that provides integrated solutions enabling companies to seamlessly process international payments. They provide a 24 hour phone service and online systems to enable clients to seamlessly process their foreign currency payments. They sync with Xero, enabling Xero users to cut down on wasteful double entry and transaction costs when processing payments. Whether your business is based in Australia and looking to transfer funds to China or based in California and transferring to the U.K., TransferMate has the widest collection of payment licences worldwide, enabling their team to assist clients get a better deal than using their bank. I started by asking Barry who is his favourite super hero and why? Barry:             Who is my favourite? I really didn’t expect that question to be honest. I can’t help get Wonder Woman out of my head which is not saying too much but I’d have to stick with Wonder Woman. It’s the first thing that came into my head. Heather:        Sensational. You’re not into super heroes then? Barry:             Listen, I like them all to be honest with you. Wolverine, I’d be a big fan of Wolverine too but listen, to be honest with you, as a kid growing up in the 80s, Wonder Woman would have held most of our fascination, so I’ll have to stick with her. Heather:        This is going to timestamp this interview but you must be excited by the news, the Spiderman/Wolverine news that came out yesterday, that they’re now allowed to be in the same shows together. Barry:             Oh, I didn’t realise they were prohibited from that before, were they? Heather:        They were owned by different companies. The comics were owned by different … Barry:             Marvel and … Heather:        Sony. Something Sony, I’m not exactly sure of all the details but I know that now they can appear on shows together. Barry:             Well, all I know is whoever is behind the marketing of Lego is destroying our bank balance with our kids. Every superhero Lego character is there. Heather:        Cool. You’ll have to turn it into little videos for your products and then you can have it as a tax deduction. Yes, they always go viral those videos do. Barry:             That’s a very good idea. So Barry, you cofounded a business called TransferMate Global Payments. Is that the full name of it? Is that correct? Barry:             That’s right, yes. It’s generally referred to as TransferMate. As the name suggests, ultimately our core service is to help clients transferring money. At the moment, still about 90% of companies would use the bank. There’s a better way to do it. Quite often businesses get caught up with naturally running their own business and taking care of sales and dealing with inventory and everything that goes with that, and in terms of all the daily activities, making the payment is kind of the one that slots in as a once a fortnight, once a monthly activity. It doesn’t get as much attention but when you look at it, it’s quite apparent that the banks charge too much generally, as a general rule of thumb. Heather:        Absolutely. So you would probably be in agreement that businesses don’t think about the actual cost of the payment involved, it’s kind of like an afterthought. Barry:             Well, I think that it doesn’t help that the banks are less than transparent. Quite often if you do a transfer to the bank … we’ve checked with all the banks in Australia, and as a general rule of thumb, without naming banks, the fees are typically anything between $22 and $35. You can even look at let’s say … we’ve talked to Xero clients in the States and one in particular is paying their US bank $80 for no apparent reason, and it’s sometimes just rolled up in a monthly fee but typically $22 to $35. But that’s not really where the loss is. The loss can be seen in the exchange rate and the exchange rates can ultimately be beaten. Quite often what you’ll find is a company will say, “You know, I’m inclined to do …” if you’re a Xero partner and you have clients that do foreign currency payments and you speak with them, quite often the client will do what they’ve always done. The whole idea of cloud accounting broke that myth and has revolutionised accounting. In the same way, this should really do it for the client. I suppose all the client really needs to see is a comparison cost to really get themselves interested. Heather:        Yes, absolutely. So what you’re saying is there are two expenses involved: both the actual charge and then the exchange rate, and it’s understanding there are better alternatives out there.                         Go on, sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you off. Barry:             I was just going to say, technically there’s three: the exchange rate, the sender fee and the receiver fee. Heather:        Yes. Barry:             So if you’re an Australian business making a payment to the UK, the UK bank in addition charge a fee too because the beneficiary receives the payment and the bank says, “You know what, I’m going to charge you for receiving that.” Why? Because you can’t do anything better. Heather:        Yes. Barry:             So what we’ve created is a bank-to-bank network worldwide. We have bank accounts in 90 countries. When we make a payment to the UK from Australia, as one example, we pay out of our UK account. So we receive in Australia and pay out of the UK. Heather:        Okay. Barry:             That way it avoids all the international fees altogether. We’re effectively using our own clearing system. Heather:        Excellent, yes, and you are unaware of that. I know I’ve dealt with business and we’ve paid the business, and then they’ve said, “Yes but you owe us another $20 after you’ve paid them like $20,000,” and you’re like going, “Seriously? We paid everything we were supposed to pay there,” but we didn’t realise that was happening. What inspired you to start TransferMate Global Payments then? Barry:             I suppose we’ve been involved with a number of online businesses in the past. It’s only really when we got a chance to look deep down at the rates and the fees the banks were charging that we realised that there was a better way to do it. I suppose back in 2010/2011, we had quite a number of corporate clients that we felt needed a service that would beat the banks. At the time there was one licence required to operate this service. So we took about six months to get the licence and it was very much a … there wasn’t very much technically involved. We were basically dealing with the banks and we’d get a wholesale deal with the banks and we were able to … the same way a wholesaler gets better pricing for a product and can pass something on to the retailer, we had the same on our setup. Then I suppose over the years we advanced. We now transfer $5 billion US dollars on behalf of clients worldwide. Heather:        Wow. Barry:             The system that we built automatically prices up wholesale banks. A lot of the banks we would have traditionally bought currency off can’t give us the currency at the rates we buy it off. So we’re now buying it, in many cases, at the same rates the banks are buying it at. With the volume you buy, you can really go in and get the best possible deal. The systems that we built are all in-house and they’re bulletproof. We set them up in 2010 and it’s just getting better and better and better. I suppose a natural progression was to integrate into the likes of Xero to make the whole process much easier. Heather:        That’s really interesting. What have been the biggest challenges and obstacles that you’ve faced running this business and growing this business? Barry:             I guess a challenge is always getting the brand out there. I have to say, I guess it would be the case for a lot of services, it’s ultimately the idea of apathy. How do you convince a client what they’re doing today and have done for years … everyone knows a client – I wouldn’t say stubborn – but has run a successful business. They’re the boss. They’ve been doing something for 10 years and you walk in and you know where you stand with them in terms of accounts, “You do that but this is my business,” kind of way. It’s trying to convince him that there’s another way to do it without maybe telling the client, you know, any obligation.                         We win over clients but it does take time. I suppose it’s that time that it takes because when we contact clients, they typically don’t have a payment today. So the analogy I use is it’s kind of like approaching a client after coming out of a restaurant and saying, “We’ve got a nicer hamburger.” They’d say, “Great, I’ve already eaten.” So the timing isn’t quite good. It’s a case of timing really. Heather:        Yes, I know in situations where I’m dealing with businesses and they’re doing this, when they need to do the transfer, they have no time to actually think about doing it a better way, so they never have anything in place. They also just keep going through the same old process. I know I’m quite detailed in that I split out all the expenses related to exchange rate both movements and charges, and they really, really add up, and they’re just straight off the bottom line if you’re not monitoring them. Barry:             That’s kind of interesting. From a Xero perspective, and Xero handles foreign currency far better than most accounting packages out there … Heather:        Yes, love the way it manager multi-currency in Xero. Love it. Barry:             It’s brilliant. But nevertheless, if you have say 10 payments to make today, when it comes back to actually making those payments you have to go into your online banking, make each one individually, then you have to go back to your account software, change the exchange rate, account for the bank fees. Believe it or now, for each payment, it probably takes about five minutes. You can do it faster if you rush but it probably takes five minutes. With the add-on that we created, you can literally click a button, log in, it pulls 100 payments in for example, shows you the live rates, the fees are automatically 75% cheaper than the bank, you click one button and it does all the auto posting of the currency loss, gains, bank fees, and the payments directly into your account software. Heather:        Excellent. Barry:             It’s much, much more time efficient, and funnily enough, that’s the part the clients really like. Heather:        The time efficiency. Barry:             Yes, because the fee thing, they can kind of get over the $10 or the $15 or whatever they save in fees but what they see is the hassle gone. That’s what they really like. Heather:        Let’s jump ahead. Can you describe to our listeners … I’ve got Xero running and I want to integrate it to TransferMate, what does that look like and how quickly does it take me to set it up? Barry:             Okay, so it takes two minutes to register. All I need to do … there’s a special website for Xero add-on and it’s called TransferMateonline.com. Heather:        I’ll put that in the show notes for listeners. Barry:             Perfect, yes. There’s a special link also on your website obviously. We’ll make sure we fast track those but basically once they register on that website then they’ll have a one page, we call it an AML form, it’s like a signup form and we just need those details there for regulatory purposes. It’s nothing serious. It just says who are the shareholders, who are the directors, sign here, that’s really all. Then we take that to our compliance team and it’s set up usually either same day or within 24 hours, and then the client’s pretty much good to go.                         We provide all the help in terms of setting up the add-on but it’s really, really simple. They just simply add their bank account, add a few supplier background details, and they’re ready to go. Heather:        Excellent. Do you think the payment fees on your solution are less than if you’re paying say subscriptions via PayPal? Barry:             I’m not too sure what the subscriptions are to be honest with you but I do know that PayPal, the exchange rate, is basically 3-odd percent. So it’s definitely not … if you’re doing any payments of any consequence, it’s definitely cheaper to use our solution. Heather:        Excellent. Where about is your business based Barry? Barry:             We have an office in Sydney and we have offices in Chicago, London, Dublin, Madrid and Paris. They’re our main offices. Heather:        Excellent. So you’ve got quite a lot of offices then. Barry:             Yes, but mainly what we do is we wanted to provide a 24 hour solution for clients, so if you’re a client in Australia, for whatever reason you want to check a payment at 9 o’clock at night, you can pick up the phone and you’ll get through to our team in Europe. It’s the same as the CRM system. Everyone would be able to tell you what’s happening with your file. Equally if a client wants to call at 2 o’clock in the morning, they’re talking to our US office, and same again. We provide a 24 hour solution for clients worldwide. We have a big base of clients in the US and Europe and increasingly in Australia and New-Zealand. Heather:        Wow, so it’s 24/7 access to the solution and it’s operating globally, so all of Xero’s global customers can access your solution if they need to. Barry:             Absolutely. Heather:        Excellent. I was going to ask sort of what business industries does the solution suit but I’m guessing it’s anyone who is transferring money internationally. Barry:             Yes, you’d be amazed … well not amazed, you mentioned the Spiderman figures, I suppose as shocked as I was with the question and had no answers, if I told you exactly what sort of companies or the crazy stuff they’re doing, I’d probably bowl you over too but it’s really anything. I suppose, in my experience, it’s typically somebody who basically imports a product and then basically resells it. But you also have services, business that might … it’s really kind of anything. Like if you look at … I suppose 70-80% of the payments out of Australia, for example, are in US dollar. I’d hazard a guess that about 60-70% of those are to China and they are to buy products. Heather:        Yes, absolutely. Barry:             Right now it’s quite an interesting time because I saw in the Sydney Morning Herald today that the rate, the US dollar/Aussie rate is expected to go down to 0.68, so it’s quite an important time to be making sure you’re getting I suppose the best rate. Heather:        Absolutely, from an Australian perspective, yes. Barry:             I’m sorry. Equally I suppose there are pressures on all currencies against the US dollar at the moment but I suppose time has changed, while the US dollar is strong now it may not necessarily be but it’s forecast to have a lot of strength over the next year. Heather:        It just seems to be an ever growing roller coaster. I’d like to probably clarify for our listeners. Xero has various subscription levels, one which has multi-currency in it, however I believe your product will work even if you don’t have the multi-currency level in Xero. Is that correct? Barry:             Yes, in order to get the integration and the benefits, what the add-on does is it pulls in the invoices that are due and it pushes them back as paid. So it needs to know what currency they are to show you a rate but if you don’t have multi-currency enabled, you can use the standalone website which is just TransferMate.com/xero as opposed to TransferMateonline.com. The other part we’ve seen is despite the fact that the multi-currency is so easy to setup in the packet, some clients just say, “I don’t need to pay X for it. I don’t do enough payments.” But if you look at the savings you can make on a couple of payments, it warrants … and we’ve seen it, clients upgrading to the premier package, they can see the benefits of time saving. Even if they’re making a couple of payments a month, that in itself warrants even looking at maybe upgrading. Heather:        So upgrading their Xero package. Barry:             Exactly, yes. Heather:        I do find that a lot of people have this mentality that if something is online they shouldn’t pay for it. You explain to them, “But look at the time it’s saving you,” and it’s a real mindset that they’ve got, “Well, I can just spend that hour doing that.” Barry:             Totally. Heather:        It’s like, “Wouldn’t that hour be better off enjoying yourself on the beach or working with your customers, like not doing an administrative process that doesn’t need to be done. It can be completely automated.” Barry:             You could be playing with Spiderman and Batman on the beach. Heather:        You could be. You could be making little videos of Spiderman, turning your videos viral. Barry:             You’re totally right. Some people are inclined not to put a value on their time. I suppose really good business, like the Xero advisers, this whole kind of revolution … the whole era of the adviser level doesn’t really appear at all in the UK/Ireland, but it’s very, very … you can feel it’s very strong in the Australia/New Zealand, and it’s great for businesses to have that kind of crutch to lean on. I don’t think it exists in the UK/Ireland. Heather:        Yes, it’s interesting watching the wave spread across the world on social media and how people are kind of reacting to it and how the early adopters are reacting to it and how other people are like going, “No, I don’t want to do it that way. I don’t want to let anyone loose on our accounts,” and stuff like that. What have been some of the key milestones or successes in growing your business Barry? Barry:             Well, the way we look at it is every week we have clients coming onboard and asking, “You know what, this feature here, this is the way we want to do it.” There’s always a tweak that a client is going to put to the add-on because surprisingly enough it’s not simply just putting your payments and pushing them through. That’s a really good challenge for us because for me it’s important to make sure the Xero add-on is the best available. Our developers are great. They turn around change really quickly. So we want to make sure that it’s as good as it could ever be.                         I just love, to be honest, talking to a client and seeing how quickly the changes go into play because quite often with the desktop software, people are used to not having to put up with whatever they get. Heather:        The annual update. Barry:             Yes. It’s just great when you have a client and you know you’re saving them time. Again, with the Xero software in particular, what I find really interesting is how open clients are to kind of looking at the add-ons in particular because they expect that kind of eco system which is great. Heather:        Yes, that is true because I’ve been on desktop software for a long time and I was just like complacent. I know the first time I heard Rod Drury speak about Xero, etc., I was astonished at how upset he was about desktop software and how frustrated he found it. I was like, “Wow, it’s not that bad,” but I kind of get it now. It took me a while to get onboard with that. I now find it frustrating. It’s like, “Why won’t it work,” but it’s the evolution of it. Barry:             Just on the back of that another milestone for us to hit I suppose it’s a really big number and one we’re proud of, $5 billion transfers … Heather:        Yes, that’s seriously big. Barry:             On the scale of things, it’s very, very small. In Australia alone there’s $200 billion in foreign currency payments taking place for small to medium business, and again, I think it’s $70 billion in New Zealand. US – you can imagine the size of the market. I suppose it’s great to know that when we see our numbers escalating like that, it just tells us that we’re doing something right. It’s great to see. Heather:        And someone is making a lot of money on the foreign exchange if that’s the number of foreign exchange transactions that are happening. The banks are – is what I’m saying, and they could be saving a lot of money using you. Barry:             Well, I think so. I suppose the great thing about the add-on is they don’t need to take our word for it. They can just quickly sign up and they can check themselves. Sometimes our clients will just pick up the phone and call us and get a rate quote. That’s I suppose the great thing about it: it’s an alternative but not an obligation. So they can get a rate quote without pushing through the money? Barry:             Yes, absolutely. Heather:        They can get a rate quote before the transaction happens. Barry:             You can pick up the phone 24 hours a day and say to the guys, “I heard about you. Give me a rate.” Heather:        Excellent. How many people do you have on your development team Barry? Barry:             About 12 including web developers and database developers. I suppose the system that we have in place is … we’re kind of unique in that we spent a long time getting regulated and we’re probably one of the more regulated businesses of our kind in the world. In the US along, you have to be regulated in each state. To give you an example, in California, it took 18 months to get regulation, and you have to have a million dollars in deposit. It’s not something that you can take lightly. Then you have to do monthly filings with each state. I don’t know where I was going with that. But in terms of our developers, our system has to be up online 99.999% of the time. We’ve got a huge investment in datacentres. All this terminology, I wasn’t really aware of it for … synchronous replication, so if the system goes down it comes back up again in 2 seconds on another site. We’re quite heavy in that respect but we’ve got the best, I think anyway … Heather:        My transcriber is going to love that word – synchronous replication. Where about are your datacentres based? Barry:             They’re based in the States and also in Europe. Heather:        Excellent. So you’ve just come home from London Xerocon. Can you share with us what your experience was like at London Xerocon? That’s 2015 for people listening in. Barry:             I’ve been to Xerocon in Sydney and it definitely had the same theme. The whole place was buzzing with energy. Heather:        Yes. Barry:             I think it was packed to capacity. Everyone seemed to kind of be buzzing off each other, the kind of family feel, it was just … yes, you literally could have closed your eyes and you would have thought you were in the Sydney one. Heather:        Oh really? There you go. There didn’t seem to be very many kilts hanging around when I saw in the photos there. It just seemed the Satago guys had come down with the kilts. Barry:             Yes, I think they were dominating the dress wearing. Did you have any revelations at the London Xerocon? Barry:             Not necessarily revelations. I just … having walked around talking to a number of accountants at the show, they all seemed … the common theme was ultimately they’ve got to catch up or they’ll be left behind. That’s a very powerful message to somebody who’s been doing the same thing or doing it the same way for years, to be told, “This is what we’ve seen,” because we’ve seen the evidence before. It’s a great way to have a room sit up alert. Heather:        Yes, we had a local Xero roadshow in Brisbane yesterday and I think it was like 50% of the attendees, if not more, it was the first time they’d been to a Xero roadshow. They were just walking around stunned at what was going on and what was being told at the actual sessions. It’s like, “My goodness, we need to get on this.” Barry:             I kind of look at it like … and again, I’m not probably representing it right but a lot of the advisers seem to be almost like MacGyver’s with all the add-ons and the functionality of the software. It was kind of like a big bullet belt or suitcase full of tricks that they can show clients that … Heather:        What do you mean by MacGyver sorry? Barry:             MacGyver, again, an 80s show. He used to have tricks and ways of getting out of situations … Heather:        Is he like Inspector Gadget? Barry:             Yes, kind of like that. So he could basically pick locks with a toothpick or a matchstick. I suppose ultimately the idea being that there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do with his box of tricks. I know this is going to be a 20 year old saying, “Who the hell is MacGyver?” Heather:        I know I was kind of going … I kind of vaguely knew who he was but wasn’t exactly sure how the reference was working in. But yes, Inspector Gadget, I get what you’re saying and definitely the bookkeepers that I’ve seen who have kind of moved to the cloud integrator space, they’re saying to businesses, “Okay, you’re a business, you need to get in this product, this receipt scanning product, this debt tracking product, this cash flow solution. Integrate it with Xero, and that’s the roll out, and you’re getting that. If anything else is happening then we can talk about it.” Barry:             Yes. Heather:        We’re seeing the education of the add-on solutions, which you probably don’t perceive yourself as an add-on solution, but for the people within the Xero community it’s like, “Okay, then this solution TransferMate, we need to add it to all of our companies who have it sitting there as an option for all of our companies who are doing international exchanges.” Barry:             Yes, and I’d be happy if you did. I suppose an interesting kind of feedback, we saw recently because someone asked us and we hadn’t really kind of looked at it before, was what’s the retention rate? What’s the repeat use rate? It’s over 90% which is phenomenal I think, which ultimately tells us that it’s working and clients like it. The main reason why the 10% aren’t mainly is because they don’t have payments [for tolls? 00:27:24]. Heather:        Yes, people evolve their business. Look, whenever I put in a new solution, I always evaluate the time cost and will drop it if it’s not beating that. But even if I’m using a solution, sometimes for 40 minutes a month, I know it’s saving me so much money in the actual use of it. I just keep adopting and plugging in more. Then people come and say to me, “How can you manage to do so much?” I’m like, “Well, all of my life is automated, so that’s how I manage to do it.” Barry:             Actually that was one of the take points from the show. I suppose one of the gold partners sat up on stage and he was asked, “What has it meant to him,” and he said, “Well, typically I have a big client, for example, that would normally take two staff, two days to do a return for him. Now it takes one staff, one day.” So he said it’s quite a simple way to break it down in terms of the cost saving. Heather:        Absolutely. Barry:             But even if you look at the add-ons, traditionally I would have seen old desktop software, and you have clients clambering around trying to find inventory, third party inventory, to slot in and their pieces don’t really fit in well. But it just seems to be the eco system here is quite unique in that the pieces have to work. Heather:        Yes, absolutely. I think the technology behind the open published API which I’m not pretending to understand exactly, everyone seems to say is like this phenomenal, “Click and it works, and the flow of data is what’s saving us all that time, that automation.” Barry:             Well, the great thing about it is the team in Xero, the developer team, can see that it works. You can’t build an add-on and say it works because they’ll say, “No, it doesn’t. We can see that.” Heather:        And everyone raves about the Xero developer team, so that’s good to know. To ask you a bit more about your business, what activities have been successful for TransferMate in generating leads for your business? Barry:             I suppose typically it’s going through and contacting accountants, letting them know how the service works. We do a little bit of social but ultimately it’s picking up the phone and calling companies. I suppose it’s ultimately getting to talk to clients, getting directly to a client is something we can measure a lot easier than necessarily going through a channel because I suppose we’re talking directly to the client, so we can know if we make X amount of calls today … it might sound like a funny way of doing things but that’s what we find has traditionally worked. But we’re more open to we now have a partner channel where we have the centres in place for the accounting partners to earn additional revenue stream by telling their clients about the service, and in doing so having the clients save money. That’s a more logical way to go for us and it’s something we really, really encourage. Heather:        Do you want to expand on your partner programme? Barry:             Yes, so in effect what we do is, if you’re a partner and you believe you’ve got clients or you may know of companies that make international payments, we provide a unique tracked web form and we simply give it to you to put on your website. If someone stumbles across it, they may not even be your own client, they may be a company down the road or somebody who has come across your website because you perform well in the search engines, as long as they see that link there in the website and they register, automatically we sign up the client and every time the client books payments, there is a referral fee split for the partner, and the partner can track that online in our online system. So the more clients transfer, they simply log in every [one? 00:31:26] and they can see exactly what’s been earned and how active their clients are, referrals are. So you’re effectively encouraging partners to assist in the selling process on your behalf? Barry:             I suppose what I’d liken it to is basically opening the door and letting our flyer in I guess to some degree. If you can imagine we’re in a neighbourhood, and there’s a roundabout in the middle, and there are eight houses around that roundabout, and all the doors are closed but there’s a party happening inside every house, we’re kind of just saying, “Open your door and let us in.” Heather:        Sensational. I’ve not heard it described that way but yes, it’s a warm introduction. Barry:             And to be honest with you, that’s why I guess the relationship that advisers have with clients is naturally a very strong one. It’s one of advice. It’s one of reliance to some degree, and because of that there is trust there that helps us move past, “Who are you,” to “Okay, I understand you’re a good company. What does your service do?” Heather:        Excellent. Yes, absolutely. On the technical side of that, I think you used a different term – referral link, but in terms of the referral link or the affiliate link, is it built in-house or did you use a commissioning programme to provide that? Barry:             We built it all in-house. Heather:        With your smart team of developers, sensational. Barry:             I guess to be honest with you, we’ve been involved in online businesses for I suppose the best part of 10 years. The one thing we’ve seen from day one, our referral programmes were like many which is basically, “Tell us a client and we’ll record all the details and sales and we’ll share Excel sheets.” It just doesn’t work. Partners shouldn’t need to have to second guess or figure out how it works. It should be very, very transparent.                         The way it works is quite simply if a client books a payment, signs up and books a payment today, within five minutes you’ll be able to login and see the details right through our system. That’s exactly the way it should be. Heather:        Excellent. It sounds like another solution you could sell to the cloud community … Barry:             Yes, we’ll have to get on it. Heather:        You could split of and sell. What have you learnt from running your business? Barry:             I suppose I’ve learned that power of the brand. So early days we would go out and we would tell clients about what we do and it shouldn’t really be about, in my opinion … I guess it’s nice to build a big brand out there but it’s also, in terms of scaling up, it’s nice to be able to lean on an existing brand whether that be an adviser brand or a Xero brand. I suppose clients, when they understand the association between Xero, as an example, it opens the door a lot easier. Heather:        Yes. Barry:             I understood very quickly that the cold call is a cold call. The warmer it can be obviously the quicker you can get to where you need to get to. Other than that, I suppose it’s the same principle for any business: you’ve got to say what you do. If you win a client it doesn’t mean they’re going to stay, particularly in the Xero community. If you don’t do what you’ll say you’ll do, it won’t go unnoticed. You have to basically stand by your service and I suppose take care of business. Heather:        I guess that’s actually when we’ve moved from desktop to cloud computing, we’ve also evolved into social media. So whenever something goes wrong, it’s just all across there and these grumpy people have these grumpy complaints about stuff, so you’ve got to be on the ball all the time with it, just monitoring it what’s going on with stuff. Barry:             It’s interesting though, while the Australian banks aren’t necessarily the best, they’re not the worst. Heather:        No. Barry:             We have clients … the French banks are charging up to 12% on foreign exchange to clients. Heather:        Wow. Barry:             I asked one of our clients before to ask their client three questions for a partner and the three questions were: who are you using? Question two was basically how do you find our service now? Three: would you recommend it? When it came to the third question after saying he used a particular bank in France, the answer from the client was, “Not only would I recommend you but when I told my bank the rate you gave me, they told me to use you too.” Heather:        That’s a great case study. Barry:             Yes. Heather:        So I’ve got one final question for you Barry. No, I’ve got two actually. First question is will we be seeing you at Auckland Xerocon? Barry:             I hope so. We have a team in Australia, so I hope to have one of our team in Auckland, absolutely. Heather:        Sensational. I’m planning to go so I’ll see someone there. My final question for you Barry is what advice would you have for your 18 year old self? Barry:             Ah, you hit me with another one. Don’t throw out the Superman figuruines. Heather:        Because you can make a lot of money. Barry:             Put away the Wonder Woman outfit. No, what would my advice for my 18 year old self … my advice would be I suppose from day one I’ve always wanted to be involved and working for myself in one of my own businesses. When I was 18 in school, I didn’t think … I was fully of ideas but I just didn’t think I was ready for it yet. I ducked into a master’s for a year and it gave me a lot of time to sit back and work on concepts and I suppose just ready myself, but like anything else, get out there and if you’re … I suppose it depends what you want to do. I’m from a family who like to sell things and ultimately that’s what we do. We’ve got that in us whether we do it well or not. I suppose it’s in our blood. It’s what we love to do. So do what you love to do and ideally keep on doing it. Heather:        Do you think that the master’s helped you or do you think it was just the time that helped you while you were doing the master’s? Barry:             I think … looking back on it now to be honest with you, I think … it seems to be more logical for someone to take a masters on after you’ve … so they may have gone through college, they may not have but they find themselves in the workforce and they may not be doing things particular right or there are processes they could be doing better. Then when they go to do a masters, they can understand, “Well, that’s what I should be doing.” It kind of puts a framework on top of it. I’m kind of glad. It sounds a bit square to do it so I’m kind of just glad I got it. I knew I had to do it straight away after I finished college because I knew as soon as I got out and started selling, I wasn’t going to want to go back to college. Heather:        Yes, absolutely. Barry:             Our best sales guys did not spend any time in college. I suppose if it’s … I know quite often in terms of candidates looking for work, they’re preoccupied with finding candidates that have college degrees but I suppose there is nothing better than finding somebody with a passion and being likeable. So I don’t really necessarily think that everybody should have one. Heather:        No, the education question I think is evolving very quickly as we speed up. I think concise learning is really important but this extended long learning is interesting, whether it’s still going to be relevant in many years to come. Barry:             I suppose cloud accounting wasn’t taught in college. It was probably learnt in the minds of creative thinkers. Heather:        Absolutely. I’m a professional accountant so I used to get up at 4 o’clock in the morning and study through till 11 o’clock in the evening for like four years while I completed my qualifications while working full time. I’m looking back on it, “Hmm, I’m not sure it was worth it.” But anyway, it’s done, box ticked. Barry:             I guess the accountant is different. Like it’s lovely to be able to have an actual skill, a passport that can say, “You know what, as a matter of fact, this is a tangible skill to have.” It’s a great thing to have. I suppose in the marketing/sales side of it, you have to rely on a little bit of luck, a little bit of ideas and timing, and [crosstalk 00:40:29] I guess. Heather:        Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for speaking to me today Barry. I really appreciate it and I’m sure the listeners will get a lot of information from this session as well as learning more about TransferMate Global Payments and also about how you grew your cloud business globally. Thank you very much. Barry:             Thank you very much for your time. Heather:        Cheers. Barry:             Take care. Talk to you soon. Bye-bye. Heather:        Thanks a lot Barry. Bye. 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Highlights of my conversation with Cameron Priest ·        Singaporean Government fostering a technology hub ·        Global adoption of add-ons ·        Setting up a start-up in Singapore ·        Growing a business with a multi-lingual support ·        Giving clients the “wow factor” during the on-boarding process ·        The Smart Enterprise Software Wave ·        Choosing a currency to price in ·        Blk 71 Ayer Rajah Cr– the hub for start-ups in Singapore Subscribe to Episode 9 of Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807 Read about it here: http://cloud-stories.com/ep-9-cameron-priest-tradegecko-kiwi-cloud-inventory-solution-calling-singapore-home/ TradeGecko is a world-class Inventory, Order and Supply Chain Management platform with a comprehensive suite of functionalities – packaged together in an intuitive, cloud-based interface, designed and structured ‘user-first’ from the ground-up. Expertly manage your inventory as you save time, eliminate errors and streamline your sales channels, synchronized across all your stakeholders in real-time. Transcript Heather:        Welcome, Cameron, to the show. Thank you very much for being here. Cameron, the first question I’d like to ask you is what did you like to do when you were twelve years old? Cameron:      Well, I grew up on a kiwifruit orchard in New Zealand, so a big part of my life was exploring and building go-carts with my brothers, building things with my father, so kind of creating things was a big part of being twelve and kind of exploring the property. Heather:        Wow. That’s amazing, growing up in a kiwifruit orchard. That sounds like the quintessential New Zealand dream doesn’t it? Cameron:      I feel like it’s the butt of every New Zealand joke because we had kiwifruit and we had sheep. Heather:        Did you? Oh, you mentioned the sheep. But that’s sensational. Was it like a big orchard? Cameron:      It was a large kiwifruit producing orchard. It’s not massive but my father’s full time job was managing the orchard, so it wasn’t insubstantial but he is still doing that today.   Heather:        Wow. That’s amazing. You have come so far from kiwifruits to this. I’m surprised your businesses name is not Kiwi Gecko or something like that or Kiwifruit Gecko. How did a guy from Auckland end up in Singapore as a CEO of TradeGecko? Cameron:      Yeah, well previously I’d had a business doing development of iPhone and web applications for third parties, so client based kind of web design agency, and we had some customers who were kind of having the issue that we now are trying to solve with TradeGecko which is managing the entire backend of their businesses, be they wholesale or retail businesses. I’d been searching and looking and kind of struggling to start a business that kind of ... I guess the theory was always a business that made money while you sleep. That’s always the end goal for everyone isn’t it? Heather:        Yes. Cameron:      So this to me was a great opportunity and the more I looked, the bigger the opportunity seemed. Yeah, I mean for us the move from Auckland to Singapore was just access to capital, access to international markets, and I guess just a shake-up. I mean it’s very easy to be very complacent in New Zealand. It’s beautiful and it’s slow and it’s easy to have a really good lifestyle but it kind of … a way to kick my own butt was getting out of my comfort zone. Heather:        That’s interesting. Are you the founder of TradeGecko? Cameron:      Yes, so there are three co-founders. There’s myself and Carl Thompson who moved over to Singapore, and then I actually poached my older brother who is a great engineer a couple of months later to head up our product team. Heather:        I did notice some other Priests on the ... Cameron:      We’ve actually recently hired the youngest Priest as well. He’s a great engineer. Heather:        Sensational, another ... it does seems a lot of the add-on solutions are a family entity or exercise, so that’s interesting. Cameron:      Yeah. How many staff do you have based in your Singaporean office? Cameron:      In Singapore, we’ve got 29. Heather:        Wow. That’s a lot. Do you have staff based elsewhere? Cameron:      Yes, we have a team in Manilla in the Philippines and we’ve just opened an office in San Francisco as well. Heather:        Wow, so you’re growing rapidly because the ... How old is the business? It’s only about two years old isn’t it? Cameron:      Yeah, just over two years. We’ve quadrupled since last November which is scary to be perfectly honest. Heather:        Yeah, it’s amazing. That’s amazing growth you’ve got there. So based on what you’re saying there, let me ask you ... let me just jump ahead and ask you another question. On your LinkedIn profile, you used the phrase, “We give the power of Walmart supply chain management to SME’s.” Where are your customers coming from and are you targeting the US market because obviously Australians don’t know Walmart. I’m presuming New Zealand doesn’t have Walmart, so it was a very American phrase for me sitting there in LinkedIn. Cameron:      You make a very good point. I hadn’t thought about that point of view. Yeah, we do target the US. To be honest, the US and Australia are our two largest markets. In terms of the Walmart phrase, there’s actually kind of a positioning statement we’ve used when raising fund raising. I guess I kind of internalise it and have been using it in market materials, and perhaps isn’t the most targeted for the Australian or New Zealand markets, but that was kind of theory. Yeah, Australia is a big market but US is now overtaking them as our largest market nowadays. Heather:        That’s sensational. How are you approaching the American markets because it’s such a huge market to crack? How you approaching that? Cameron:      With trepidation. I mean effectively … I mean with us and obviously part of this conversation is the partnership with Xero and Shopify were the first real partnerships that started getting us customers. So in Australia and New Zealand, we’ve really been able to grow to kind of ride the coat tails of Xero, and Xero obviously isn’t dominant in the US, although I’m sure we all hope and I’m sure Rod really hopes that it does become so in the future. Heather:        Yes. Cameron:      But it does mean that we’re kind of facing an uphill battle in terms of the way we kind of inch that market. Completely honestly, we don’t know everything about what our strategy is going to be to enter that market because it is such a different kettle of fish. It’s a work in progress. Heather:        Yes, it is. So are you seeing movement into the UK market? Cameron:      UK is our seventh biggest country. US is big, Australia, Canada, New Zealand of course, Singapore is surprisingly large for us being based here but it’s still it’s a surprisingly small country and surprisingly large number of customers. I guess your classic western English speaking markets are large markets but then we’re everywhere to the Republic of Congo, Mexico, South Africa, some very, very … you know, 86 countries. It’s crazy the places that are using our software. Heather:        It’s sensational. I imagine that … you have an inventory based software, I imagine, and correct me if I’m wrong, that compliance and legislation doesn’t necessarily affect you in that it would be same for inventory based software no matter where you are. Cameron:      Exactly. I mean there are always going to be little things. I mean the Alcohol Tax in Australia, the Wet Tax, is actually another difficult issue we’ve had to tackle and we’ve had other issues in other countries. To your point, the US still has very complicated sales tax regime that we need to kind of work with. Heather:        Okay, so that comes from within your solution rather than within the point of sales solution? Cameron:      Exactly. Heather:        Okay, that’s interesting. How would you describe the Asia Pacific, Singapore, South East Asia start-up seem? Cameron:      It’s burgeoning. I mean Singapore has had a lot of money inject into from the Singaporean government. In fact our first round of financing, our investors put in $89,000 and the government put half a million in. Heather:        Wow. Cameron:      You just don’t get that sort of thing in New Zealand and you have some similar schemes in Australia but they’re actually getting phased out not in. So we had this opportunity here which the Singaporean government has grasped to really invest, not ... I mean not substantial money but we’re still talking kind of $30-50 million dollars which to a government is very little but that’s a hundred different start-ups that can come to Singapore and start in Singapore. They’re really, really trying to foster a technology economy in Singapore. South-East Asia is growing as well but Singapore is definitely the hub. Are any of your founders, and excuse me you may have mentioned this, are any of your founders Singaporean nationals? Cameron:      We are all Kiwis. Heather:        Yes, you’re all Kiwis. Okay, that’s really interesting. Isn’t it? “I’m actually prepared to fund you so much coming over there.” That’s amazing. But I guess you have employed a lot of people there in Singapore. Cameron:      Definitely a lot of Singaporeans here as well. Heather:        Yeah. I know when I lived in Singapore, I was on a very nice salary there, and I never used to get taxed. I remember going down to the Singaporean Tax office and putting all my stuff out and I just said, “You’ve just got to tax me, there’s something wrong. You’ve got to tax me.” They looked at it and they said, “No, you don’t earn enough money.” Cameron:      It’s great. Isn’t it? Heather:        Yeah. I was just like going, “What’s going on here? This is crazy.” Yeah, but it’s an amazing place, amazing eco-system to live, so that’s really interesting. Do you think Asia is a market that other add-on solutions should be looking to move to and to base themselves there? Cameron:      I think it’s a premature step to take it too early. I mean effectively, the western markets: Australia, US, Canada, they adopt a lot faster. We see that. I mean we are here and we obviously have a big story about Asia, even saying that we’re still seeing the fastest adoption from the western markets.                         We are probably getting customers in the Philippines and Malaysia that we wouldn’t have otherwise and we have some very large customers, multi-thousand dollar a month clients that we wouldn’t have been able to capture if we weren’t here but I do not think that you need to be here for your first 10,000 customers. Heather:        Yeah but it’s something perhaps they can look at down the line because it wouldn’t be the first place I would have thought of setting up a head office there, unless I wanted some great food and great travel access points, which is what Singapore is very well known for. Cameron:      For us ... sorry, the one thing I would say is that Singapore and Hong Kong especially are just logistic hubs. For us, we’re very focused on the industries we work with. It’s got its own … we’ve got our own reasons for being here and those wouldn’t be true for a lot of other add-ons but they are true for us. Heather:        Fair enough. So Singapore has four official languages, English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil, how do you deal with so many different languages in Asia both from a business perspective and from a software solution perspective? Cameron:      Well, firstly, we’re very luck that everyone in Singapore’s first language is English, so that’s never been an issue for us in that regard but obviously as you exist Singapore, there’s a lot less of that, there’s a lot of local languages. So to kind of work with that, we do have a very multi-cultural and a very ... what you’d think of as a melting pot in terms of our teams and in terms of the different languages. We Aussies and Kiwis are the odd ones out with our one language of English. Most countries in the world, they have 3, 4, 5 languages if they’re lucky. A lot of our team do speak multiple languages and as we’re growing our support our sales team around the region and around the globe, we are looking for multi-lingual support and sales people. I think that’s kind of the only way you can tackle it because while some of the people can speak English, they still like to spend their time, their days with what they’re comfortable with which is the language they grew up in. Heather:        Yeah, absolutely. How difficult is it for a software solution to overlay a different language across the solution? Cameron:      Technically not that difficult. The difficult part is the supporting and the documentation, it’s converting everything. But actually if you look at a piece of software like TradeGecko or Xero or any other add-on, we’re probably talking of a dictionary of less than a couple thousand words that need to be translated into a dozen different languages, and there are third party providers that will do that and maintain and keep that up to date for you for quite a low cost.                         But for us, that’s not the issue, it’s the selling, it’s the marketing, it’s the positioning, it’s the different brand images, it’s the different cultural disconnects that become quite difficult. Heather:        Okay, that’s interesting. TradeGecko has one of the best on-boarding platforms that I’ve ever used or seen. For the people listening, I’ve tried a lot of them out there. So what is it? How did you develop it? What are you using? Maybe just share with our audience what you’re happy to share about your on-boarding training. Cameron:      I think the one thing we really think about and we probably don’t think about enough is trying to really understand what is the “wow moment” for a new user. What we want to do is we want to get our customers to wow as soon as possible. I’m sure we don’t get that for everyone but we’re trying to get as many people to understand and see how good their business could be with our solution as fast as possible. That’s kind of driven our focus on really developing a really smooth on boarding, hopefully showing them the different pieces of what we do and how we can help them. I guess that’s just a really big focus of mine, and because it’s so important to me that obviously affects everyone in the organisation and we have some great designers who spend a lot of time thinking, interviewing customers, going out to visit customers, seeing what their day-to-day looks like, and really understanding and making sure that we are building the right thing effectively. Heather:        Yeah, so what I really liked was when I went into TradeGecko and started up, it seemed like sort of a slither or a pane came across and it told me to go in and setup a customer and suggested I went here and clicked on this and did that. Then another pane came across and they were all quite colourful, beautiful panes, and they came across and they just kept telling me how to do it. Was that something you inbuilt into the solution? Cameron:      Yeah, we developed that in-house. I mean effectively we believe the wow is important. The other thing is you want people to understand what we do and don’t do as fast possible just to … otherwise … so they can identify, “Is this for me or is this not for me?” That’s kind of why we built the beautiful kind of show them as much the product but not too much as fast as possible. Heather:        Yeah, absolutely. I always say to people, “Look, if you’ve got 90 minutes spare, go and sit down and go through that introduction process on TradeGecko because you just get a real good understanding on A) how an inventory solution should work and B) how your particular inventory solution works because for us as advisors, it’s so difficult to learn all these new solutions out there, especially I think we’re sort of hitting 300 out there and we don’t have the time to sit down. But when there’s something fast, easy, beautiful, and you could almost probably watch House of Cards while you’re doing it, like at the same time, it’s so simple to go through. It’s like a game I guess. I know that seems to be one of the things that some of the software developers are doing is building that sort of gaming type of thing into the solution. Cameron:      Yeah. What were the biggest challenges a Kiwi guys faces doing business in Singapore? Cameron:      The biggest issue that we’ve had is probably not being a Kiwi guy in Singapore. It’s being anyone that’s running a company that’s growing so fast. It’s kind of being introspective and being able to learn to work with a huge array of cultures, huge array of personalities and learning how to work with ... I mean it’s just something that you don’t get taught. I think unless you’ve had experience, you kind of have to make it up as you go. I think I’m very honest in saying that I don’t really know what I’m doing. I hope I know a little bit more than I did in a month ago and I definitely know a lot more than I did 12 months ago but I’m sure I’ll know a lot more in 12 months than I do right now. I think that’s probably the most important thing and the hardest thing for me has been understanding different temperaments, different cultures, different people. Heather:        That probably is more because you’re situated in Singapore perhaps then being in other places. Cameron:      Definitely. Heather:        When I was there, I found them, the Singaporeans, very welcoming of the expats. Do you find yourself very welcomed there? Cameron:      Very much so. I mean some of our best employees are obviously local guys and girls, and they’re just fantastic. They have a really good work ethic and they have a great education system here, so that really helps us obviously with our hires. Heather:        Yeah absolutely, completely agree. Five major trends have dominated the Silicon Valley recently in the last hundred years: electronic tools, semiconductors, enterprise, telecom and consumer. A sixth trend is emerging which venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale of Formation 8 has coined The Smart Enterprise. How would you describe the Smart Enterprise Software Wave that Lonsdale is referring to? Cameron:      Yeah. I guess this is exactly what we are trying to tackle and a lot of other cloud based solution providers are trying to tackle, and that’s the … today you can build online management software and that’s fine and that’s good and that’s pretty and that’s easy to use but what we really want to do is we want not to just give you tool to run your business, we want to give you the ability to make decisions and have insights. The Smart Enterprise Software Wave is kind of this discussion that as we kind of move everything online, there’s this huge amount of data. We don’t just process sales and manage inventory, we can also see things in our business and within our industries that can make us ... we can make decisions that can affect things like not just forecasting but global trends. That’s what the Smart Enterprise Software Wave gives us, it’s that big data access, the ability to make decisions to kind of couple, really easy to use, analytical software with smart people, to do things that previously could only have been done by team of scientists probably working in Excel for quite a few months, being able to bring that data and those insights to fray very easily at a click of a button. We’re not there yet globally but I think that in the next five to ten years, just the decision making power that a small business owner will have which previously you’d have to pay SAP a hundred million dollars to get, is just going to be fascinating. That’s really what we’re trying to help do. I think you’ve answered this but how can the other software development companies, listening in, leverage off this Smart Enterprise Software Wave. Should they be looking towards this analytical dashboard that you suggest? Cameron:      It’s very easy to think about as a dashboard but the way I try and think about is if you can imagine the life of your user, and in our case you probably have some guys in a warehouse, some guys in an office, maybe some sales rep on the road, the guy and the CEO and maybe the financial controller, there are all these different people and they have all these really important decisions to make every day.                         Instead of them having to think, “What do I need to do to do my job?” As a software provider, we can actually bring to the surface the right information that they need to make a decision and to actually tell them … maybe not make the decision for them but to at least kind of really point them in the right direction. I think you can only work that out by really understanding the day-to-day life of each of your products users and really thinking about what really impacts their day-to-day, their weeks, their months, their planning for the year. I guess that’s kind of what we really try and do. I’m not saying we’re perfect at that but really thinking holistically about your customers. I mean best case scenario you go and work in a customer’s work for a couple of days, immerse yourself in their life, truly understand where you can help them with data. Heather:        Yeah, it’s very difficult I imagine because your solution, while is inventory, is probably being used by so many vastly different bespoke companies, trying to adapt to everything that’s out there that’s using you. Cameron:      Exactly but you can probably think no company wants to sell this product. No company wants to have worse relationships with their suppliers. You can kind of go, “Okay, every company in the world would like more customers, would like better relationships, they’d like more advanced forecasting, they’d like to know more clearly what their profit margins are.” So I think there are some kind of general rules you can probably make which you can really help these guys answer in a way that the CEO that used to have to sit down for two weeks to do kind of Excel spreadsheets to understand the last 12 months of his business, he doesn’t have to do that anymore. He can press a button. As long as we understand what the right questions those people should be asking, I think we can really help these guys grow their businesses and of course grow our own businesses by doing that for them. Heather:        That’s really interesting. Thank you for that Cameron. So TradeGecko’s pricing is in US dollars, why did you make this decision? Cameron:      Again, it’s the Singapore thing. Being in Singapore, we had to choose a currency, it didn’t make sense to do it in Singapore dollars. Ultimately there was also a bit of technical decision there because we couldn’t do it in too many currencies, and so US dollars was just kind of the same default and the global software as a service space, in the future we may do regional pricing. To be honest, to do that, we will need to change the way that we bill but at this stage, again, I was just thinking globally, US dollar is identifiable by everyone, yeah, that was the thought. Heather:        Fair enough. So how many customers do you need to look at or do you need to on-board to generate one million dollars US a year? What sort of you looking at for that? Cameron:      Each additional million dollars … so we would be looking at ... if we look at our current revenue, every kind of 600 customers would give us US dollars a million in revenue at this stage. We’re actually in very nice position at stage. We’re actually reducing the number of customers we need as we start to bring on larger and larger clients. Heather:        That’s interesting. That’s exciting for you. Cameron:      Yes, very much so. If you’re bringing on these larger clients, how many transactions, maximum transactions, can you deal with a month? Cameron:      In terms of these, so we work with some very interesting clients, so the biggest automotive parts supplier in Europe, Oscar, and they’re doing somewhere upwards of 1800 sales a day through our systems. Heather:        Oh okay, that’s amazing. Cameron:      Admittedly they have done some customer integration into their customer e-commerce store, so they’re not taking advantage of every piece of what we do but nothing really limits us there. I think in our opinion, the limitations then becomes the workflow, it becomes very difficult to pack 1800 items. You’re talking about having a proper warehouse management system. That’s something we’re really trying to improve at all times is to cater to these bigger guys doing these larger numbers. Heather:        Excellent. That’s really interesting. Thank you for sharing that. So what are of being some of the key successes of TradeGecko? Cameron:      So really important, that first customer that wasn’t a friend or family member, so that was really, really good for us. I don’t know why, there’s just something about that first order. How many friends and family members did you have that needed an inventory solution? Cameron:      Well, because one of our co-founders was in the fashion industry, it wasn’t insignificant. I think we had our first kind of 11 customers, seven of which were friends and family, but that’s kind of changed now obviously. So what other significant milestones? I mean getting to where we are today, I don’t know why but each ... how we make it, it’s significant to us because this is another person who is depending on you for their livelihood. Heather:        Absolutely. Cameron:      So that’s a big one. Opening up the team in Philippines was big because we hired some really high quality people there to help us with products and sales. When you’re hiring people that have kids and you have got stable jobs and they’re joining you, you realise the responsibility, so that was a big one personally for myself. Heather:        Yeah, amazing. So one of the things that you released, probably maybe it was about six or eight weeks ago, was a beautiful infographic of inventory workflow, how was that received? Cameron:      Surprisingly well. To be completely honest, I wasn’t that involved with it. We have a great ... one of our marketing team members, Clara, was kind of running the show on that one. Heather:        Clara Lu, was that right? Clara Lu. Cameron:      Yes, surprisingly well. So it’s been picked up by a lot of different people and it’s kind of formented some really interesting discussions especially with some of our customers. It’s great when you have a customer come on board who says they saw that inventory thing, they finally understood something, and then they started to think, “Well, if this is what you can do to help us, then I want him,” which I’ll be honest, I was little bit sceptical about but they proved me wrong which I’m always happy to be proven wrong. Heather:        Yeah, some people only think visually. It’s interesting because some people are like, “I didn’t get that until you drew a picture of it.” I’ll include the infographic in the show notes for people to have a look at and the concept is you actually share it, isn’t it? That’s the concept? Cameron:      Of course, that’s the concept, yeah. Heather:        I noticed that when you shared it … so other people whom I have seen having infographics, they actually have it all linking back to your site and I noticed you didn’t have a direct link back to your site with the sharing of it but maybe that was just because it was for the first time. Cameron:      We’ve had some people linking back to it. I know some people can be very aggressive about that. I mean end of the day, if someone doesn’t want to link back to us and they want to share, I don’t have any problem with that. If we were doing everything just to get link backs, we’d be kind of probably creating quite sad material and output. Heather:        No, I certainly think an infographic as a marketing tool is very … can be very useful, and for business advisors being able to say, “Hey, have a look at this. This is what TradeGecko does.” Again, it makes our life a little bit easier and it is an infographic out there for anyone to use. I actually ... because you know I’m involved with XU Magazine, I told Wes we need to put in the next edition. So if you were 17 years old again, I don’t think you’re actually very old because from looking at your LinkedIn profile, but if you were 17 years old again and wanted to become the next Cameron Priest, what’s the quickest route to get there? Cameron:      Well firstly, I’m 27, so ten years ago. I think the biggest thing for me was just starting. I know it sounds very trite but it’s very ... I mean I can remember when I first learnt how to build software. The way I learned was finally ... I oversold my abilities and I got a project from a client, and then I had to quickly learn, I actually roped my older brother because he’s lot smarter than I am, to help me build something. I guess it’s very easy to talk about wanting to do something and very easy to kind of read everything and watch all the videos, but actually kind of committing yourself. There’s a very famous quote about this but I won’t quote it now because it’s quite long but it’s about just starting and when you start, providence moves, everything just kind of falls into pieces, everyone starts to help you, things just align. Things don’t always align in the right way but nothing helps you learn how to start except starting. Heather:        Absolutely. Do you think that your university qualification helped you to get to that position? Cameron:      Not at all. If you were 17 years old again, would you do that again? Cameron:      At 17, I still needed to grow up a bit, so probably yes. But I mean I tried to start businesses when I was 17, they weren’t in the technology space. I tried all sorts of different things, so I don’t begrudge that but I feel like starting is one thing and then also being exposed to people who have done it because some people are very lucky in which their parents are quite successful. Hence, they understand that the ability to create a business is not that hard. You don’t need to be super smart. You don’t need a 160 IQ. You just need to do it but I think for a lot of us, being exposed to people just like us who are successful makes you realise that it’s just about hard work. Again, that sounds very trite but being exposed to those sorts of people as young as possible, I think is very valuable. Where were you exposed to these sorts of people? Cameron:      So definitely after I moved to Singapore but before this my father is an entrepreneur. I can’t say he was a super successful one. He was a great Kiwi inventor, not a great businessman. I think that definitely exposed me to the ups and the downs of business but I do see friends who were kind of exposed to very successful business people, very young, and to them the idea of starting business has always been an obvious and relatively easy endeavour, whereas I think that majority of the population, it’s kind of something that’s always been a bit out of reach but it doesn’t need to be. Heather:        Okay, thank you. I’m just throwing one more question out there because you might have the answer, if you don’t know, no worries. If a business person was to go over to Singapore, are there any start-up hubs that they should visit that you know of? Cameron:      Yes, there’s one big one. Again, another government organisation has put it together which is a place called Blk 71 and there are probably 400-500 different start-ups there now and a bunch of investor capitalists. So it’s just Blk 71, and that’s just the name of the area and that’s the name of the building, it’s blk 71. That’s where all the technology companies, especially the younger ones, that’s where you start in Singapore. Heather:        Oh okay, that’s good. I’ll search that up and put that up in show notes. What suburb is that based in? Cameron:      That’s in Ayer Rajah, I can bring you the actual address for it afterwards. Heather:        Sensational. So, thank you so much for speaking with us today Cameron. I really enjoyed listening to you and hearing all of your insights about Asia and about TradeGecko, and I’m sure the listeners gained a lot of information from hearing from you as well. Cameron:      It was my pleasure Heather. Thank you very much. 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  Highlights of my conversation with Gayle Buchanan Running a virtual Xero bookkeeping, support and training business Managing learning new solutions from the Xero eco-system Licensing a bookkeeping business Cloud solutions for Eel fishermen Essential advice for bookkeepers; networking, resources, support and conferences Using referrals and conferences to grow your business Subscribe to Episode 2 of Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807 Transcript Heather:        Hello Gayle. Gayle:             Hello Heather. Heather:        Thank you so much Gayle for being on our show this morning. I’m really looking forward to talking to you about your business and what you generally do within the cloud. From what I understand Gayle, you founded a business called Number Nurses, can you describe what your business does? Gayle:             Sure Heather, pleasure to be here by the way. The business was started very … I didn’t really know what to do so it was kind of neat to go back to what I loved which is numbers, and I’ve always helped my husband in his business. What we do is we actually go and do call outs to people which are virtual so it’s done via Skype and TeamViewer. It’s very similar to a Plunket nurse who turns up at your door when you had a new baby and you don’t know quite what to expect and you just need some help with your Xero setup and any add-ons for Xero. It’s kind of neat, we’re the Number Nurses basically, and the bridge between the business owner and the accountant which a lot of people … the service seems to be … a lot of people want that type of thing. It kind of started as a help and now it’s starting to grow into, hopefully in the next 12 months, be licensing it. Heather:        Excellent, so you’re looking at about 12 months’ time to be licensing that. Will you be licensing Number Nurses in New Zealand or beyond New Zealand? Gayle:             It will be in New Zealand initially. All the great books I’ve read have said, “Hey, make sure you get it done at home first and it works as a model in your own country first before you go overseas.” But there are a few people overseas that want to have a look at the model as well so that’s quite exciting. Heather:        That is very exciting and what I’m seeing with people working in this Xero space is that they seem to expand very quickly, once I think they’ve got all the automation in place, which is something that sort of you’ll be on top of. Gayle:             Yes. You describe yourself as a chief Number Nurse. As a Chief Number Nurse, what does your day involve? Gayle:             I have a virtual assistant which is really great and they help me with the appointments and the training. So, half of the week is spent training which are 45 minute sessions, with a wee break in between, which is kind of neat. Heather:        Within the 45 minutes? Gayle:             Within the 45 minutes … each training is 45 minutes so have a 15 minute break in between each of them just to prep you. So I guess the day kind of starts the day before. That’s all set up a week in advance so I know what I’m doing in advance. It’s really very much training and down time bookkeeping which is my other love because you kind of need to keep that skill up in order to train better. Heather:        Yes, absolutely. I completely agree with that, in that you need to actually be doing it to train it. It always worries me when people train something that they’re actually not doing. As you know I am a writer, when people write about stuff they’re actually not doing, it’s like how can you be writing about it if you don’t do it but anyway. So yes, I think that’s really important and your clients must really benefit from your knowledge there in that you know it and then you’re training on it. Gayle:             I mean constantly the space is changing. Xero and all the add-ons are updating, so you have to keep on top of absolutely everything. But be human about it because we all can’t be 100% perfect and there are areas and markets that will use different parts of Xero. So don’t be afraid to kind of find your niche and do it well in that part of Xero, and knowing the whole lot all of the time, it is a full time job. Heather:        Absolutely. That jumps ahead to another question that I was going to ask you. I’ll jump ahead and ask you while you’ve raised that. It does take a lot of time to learn a new solution, so if someone was coming to Xero and trying to learn that or they were going into the Xero eco system where we’ve now got about currently 300 add-on solutions, trying to pick up and learn one of those solutions. What advice would you have for a business consultant going, “Okay, I want to learn something in the Xero eco system,” where should they start? Gayle:             The quickest way I learned I think was I spent nine months bashing about and trying to grab anybody and everybody in any market before stepping back. So it was sort of like I didn’t get my toes wet I just jumped straight in. After that nine months of just working, it’s a bit of a slog, just stop and take a minute and think, “Which industry or which sector do I love the most?” And go there. I went to the New Zealand Stat’s Department and went through all of the industries that were there, picked out the top five that I liked and then came back and saw what add-ons in Xero were attached to those industries. That knocked another three off, so I actually brought it down to two industries in the end. It did take about six weeks to work out which one that was. Then having had previous experience with my parent’s businesses, I knew what industries not to go into. It was kind of neat. So pick what you love first, then find the add-on, and then go learn that add-on, be a partner with that add-on as you’re learning Xero as well because it is a learning curve and thinking you know everything about it within sort of a couple of weeks, you’re deadly wrong. I speak to a lot of accounting firms they train their staff with and said, “Look, until you’ve got that 20,000 transactions under your belt and you’re feeling really confident about the industry you’re in with Xero, then you can start talking about being an expert and until then just do your time.” Heather:        Absolutely, goodness I can completely agree with that as well. A lot of people seem to call themselves an expert in something and you’re like going, “Really, when did you do that? That was extremely quickly.” That’s kind of like I rarely call myself an expert in something even though I spend 100 hours learning it. I love the fact that you spent six weeks researching that to identifying your niche area and what to actually focus in on. That’s excellent advice for people. You do, there are so many out there. You think this person’s really nice and they keep ringing me up and sending me letters, I should learn that product but standing back and working on what you’re actually going to be the best fit for is going to put you in a better position to give your client’s better advice. Gayle:             That’s half the equation, the other half is applying it, and that’s a whole different story. Heather:        Yeah, absolutely. I’ll jump back so we’ve covered sort of what your business is doing. When did you start your business, Number Nurses? Gayle:             Back in 2011 actually, it was the 4th of July interestingly enough. Heather:        Lovely, 4th of July 2011. So Number Nurses is based in Drury, is that correct? Gayle:             Yup. Heather:        I had a look on the map to find it and that’s New Zealand’s north island just south of Auckland. So what’s the internet connection like for you in Drury? Gayle:             Okay, Drury, the whole area is kind of cool. I’m more at the Bombay end so we are right on the top of a hill, 330 meters above sea level. The internet line, we’re the last house on the line, so for about 45 minutes in each day it just stops because all the school kids get home. That’s cool, it’s fine after that but you can run it off a mobile and I’ve bought some broadband machinery that helps you get … Heather:        Like a booster. Gayle:             Yeah, a little wee booster and you can run off that. But to tell you the truth, the only time I’ve gone down is when the power’s gone down and there’s been a storm, so it’s pretty cool. Heather:        It’s something that when we become more reliant on the cloud we need to be aware of, and understanding that time slot that the kids all come home from school and how it affects you, definitely. I know for me, if we get heavy, heavy, heavy rains, about three days later that’s when my internet goes down. So obviously it soaks through. Gayle:             Yes, the water in the lines. Heather:        Yeah, exactly, and sort of being aware of that. For me, I kind of have alternative arrangements which I can sort out. Gayle:             Actually my family is quite happy when that happens because I actually move. Heather:        Oh, you go and visit them do you? Gayle:             Yes, I have time to go visit people. Heather:        Sensational. Gayle:             Yes. Heather:        And I guess that’s the flexibility of actually working in the cloud. I know that I do a lot of travel and being able to just travel, be somewhere else and actually working in the cloud is sensational. So the fact that your client actually has no idea that you’re not on top of that hill when you’re giving him that training, and they don’t know about that. Gayle:             It’s great. When I’m training I just go right through that and get them all hooked up and then talk about it later. They’re like, “Oh, where are you by the way?” It usually happens when there’s a chicken that walks straight past my dog in the background and they go, “There’s a chicken standing behind you. Where do you live?” It’s kind of cool. I quite like that. Heather:        It is sensational that you can live wherever you want and develop a niche/expertise and then provide that knowledge kind of worldwide. It’s sensational. You do work with a number of solutions in the Xero add-on ecosystem and I see from your profile you are partner with a few of them. What I’d appreciate is if you could share with your listeners what these solutions do. If we can start with WorkflowMax, if that’s okay? If you can let listeners know what that product does. Gayle:             Cool, WorkflowMax in my niche for builders or some creatives is that it does force them to process, and it’s the part I love about it. If you go into a business right now who are working on pen and paper or they’re working on Excel spreadsheets or tiny bits of software, WorkflowMax can pull together the operational part of your business which is really the meat in the middle, and brings all the staff in, all your tasks and chores and all your milestones, and sets it all there really simply for people to track and work through. That particular add-on is great because you can have the job and the tasks listed and it doesn’t matter if anyone’s sick. If your employees are sick or if you’re sick, you can actually hand the job over and everything is there as a checklist. So operationally very, very good and easy, forces you to processes which a lot of businesses I come across don’t do that at all, so it’s great. Heather:        And putting in the automation of the forced process actually, again, allows them to grow their business because they’ve got a basis to grow it from. Gayle:             Absolutely. Yeah, it then becomes a nice wee asset for them too, so that’s great. Heather:        Sensational, that’s very interesting. WorkflowMax, you’re using it for builders and creatives, a lot of accountant’s use it is that correct? Gayle:             Yes, they do. Same thing, it’s fabulous. In New Zealand, it attaches to the tax department which is great. You can do your GST returns through there as well and it automates straight into Xero too which is brilliant and work papers of course which the accountants need. Heather:        Sensational, okay. Thank you very much for that. Another program that you’re a partner with is Job Sheet? Can you share with our listeners what Job Sheet does?  Gayle:             Job Sheet is actually moving into a mobile app which is great. It’s putting a job card for tradies onto a piece of software that they can carry around on their phone or on their iPad which is great. Again, it also helps with process, so if you’ve got a job card that you’d give to an employee or to yourself with addresses, delivery addressers, who you bill to, all the parts; it connects to local suppliers like the likes of electrical suppliers or plumbing suppliers. It can actually do a quote on the run which is excellent for the smaller tradies or going up to about five employees. They can do their invoicing in the driveway as they leave which means they can actually go home and they don’t take their paperwork home which I find a lot of them to keep them balanced is, “Hey, stop in the driveway, finish the job off and then don’t take anything home.” I said, “Your wife will love you for it.” I guess marriage counselling comes a little bit into our software as well which is cool. Heather:        People have told me that after having something installed that they were actually on the verge of divorce and the installation has removed that layer of frustration for them. I completely hear you there as well. That’s an interesting thing. And building that, here it is, quote; don’t leave the property before you leave the property really brings in. You raised a really good point there in terms of when we go into a business and say, “Have a look at these cloud solutions,” in reality most people are bringing their own device to work. Most people have some sort of mobile phone whether it be an iPhone or a Galaxy or something like that. So it’s very easy to overlay and just say, “Here’s a solution, upload it into your phone and use it.” And for the business owner, the infrastructure is not particularly expensive because most of them already have that. Gayle:             Yes, it’s something that doesn’t sort of go far from their pocket which is kind of handy. Heather:        Yeah, absolutely. So another solution that you deal with is Receipt Bank. Can you share with our listeners what Receipt Bank does? Gayle:             Okay, Receipt Bank would be my all-time favourite to date. Every business can use it and I think what happens is … because my husband is real estate agent and then I’ve got my brother is an eel fisherman and neither one of them … I keep my receipts all squashed up. They have the ability, like everyone’s got a phone, is to take a photograph of the receipt and it goes straight to Receipt Bank where I can code it automatically and then it comes straight down into Xero with the receipt attached both up there in the cloud with both of them: one copy’s in Receipt Bank and the other copy comes down into Xero. So you’ve got two places for that which is great back up. Then it’s already processed so I don’t have to punch it, scan the receipt and get their books done for them each month. Every client I come across that has a shoebox, I will get them to buy Receipt Bank and have that as part of their suite of software. It just saves so much time. It’s a no brainer, everyone gets it. It’s like, “Nope, you’re having it.” Heather:        Yeah, absolutely. So in terms of selling it to the client, you just tell them that they’re getting it? I’ve found it difficult to push it to encourage clients to use it. Even though I think it’s a really good solution, I’ve found it really hard to sell it to clients. How do you go through that process of saying you’ve got to use it? Gayle:             Yeah, it comes as … it’s part of the package. The reason being is the first thing everyone sees is oh, I quite like the idea of my receipts coming off the Eftpos machine, they actually fade over time. I say, “Look, as an obligation, this is part of the obligations of being a director of the company in this country is that you must keep these receipts.” I say, “If you can take a flick and get a photo up there and we’ve got two copies in two places,” and unfortunately last year the tax department here agreed to hold documents outside of New Zealand so that was fantastic, that takes away that resistance to come in and have it held in the cloud which is cool. So for them I say, “Look, this is what you’re going to be doing,” and I walk it through them and get them to … I will load it on their phone for them or get someone close to them to do it for them which is normally the case. Then once I’ve done it, I show them the difference and how long it takes, with them on Skype next to me, how long it takes for me to do it for them and how long it would take if they would just take one photo. Then straightaway they look at it from now it’s an hourly rate, not the fact that it’s only $20 a month. Heather:        Absolutely. No, definitely. Gayle:             So I just say for $20 a month you can do this or you can have me for $150, which would you prefer? Heather:        Yeah, absolutely. That’s great. For someone going back and investigating what’s happened into the business, it’s so much easier just to have that receipt attached to the transaction so you can go and refer back to it rather than the time involved in searching through paperwork. Even if they have been properly filed, it is just a no brainer. Gayle:             Yes, it can be a nightmare. Heather:        Absolutely, so we encourage everyone to sign up to a solution like Receipt Bank. You said something that I’ve never heard before. I didn’t know you had such a thing as an eel fisherman. Gayle:             Yes, there is. There are many of them. Heather:        Really? Gayle:             Yeah, they are. They’re doing some investigations at the moment with a lake nearby that’s starting to turn red. It looks like a rusty colour so the eels in there are obviously starving of food. Yeah, and I mean we export, New Zealand exports around the world. Heather:        Eels? Gayle:             Mmm, smoked eels , yum-o. Heather:        So is it a full time job? Gayle:             It is and it has been for him for nearly 40 years now. Heather:        Oh my goodness, well there you go. He’s a legend. An eel fisherman using Xero. Gayle:             An eel fisherman, yes, and Receipt Bank. Heather:        I frequently watch this very late show that appears on TV here in Australia and it’s really late at night. It’s shot in New Zealand and it’s your New Zealand Police Department and the New Zealand police are catching people who are going and getting something out of the water. I think it’s like a shell, a paua shell or something like that. Gayle:             Paua. Heather:        And they’re only allowed so many kilos but then they go in and wrap it around their engines so they can sneak it. Gayle:             I know. Heather:        It’s just like the craziest thing. Gayle:             They’re naughty. They’re just naughty. Heather:        But again, I’ve never eaten one of those either. Gayle:             Well they are lovely, especially if they’re cooked properly. You just need to make sure they get cooked properly. Heather:        Oh, do you? Okay, well, promoting eels and pap … how do we say it? Gayle:             Paua. Heather:        Paua, eels and paua, very good. New Zealand delicacies. Now, on the side as well as running your business, one of the things I first discovered you on is that you actively facilitate a group on LinkedIn and the group’s name is Xero Bookkeepers (International). You actively facilitate the LinkedIn group called Xero Bookkeepers (International), what does this bring to you? How does this fit in with your business? Gayle:             In that first year or two, part of the social media part to grow not only my name and then start growing the company name, is that I have been taught that it’s always grow your name first and then start growing your company. So part of that was LinkedIn is what I consider the professional group for the social media marketing. I went, “Right, I’m going to start this group and what I’m going to do is start helping other bookkeepers that are coming in on board on Xero and let’s start sharing ideas and let’s just start bringing all the bookkeepers together.” Because it can be kind of a lonely place and getting up and going in and networking sometimes we sort of get to put your head down and get immersed inside all the numbers. I thought if we start this group it means that we can collectively get together around the world and I’m sure bookkeeping is the same everywhere. So I started invite … I just invited absolutely everybody that had Xero next to their name in LinkedIn or anyone that I ever met and brought them all together. What it did was it just helped me feel not so alone as I was building my business. I thought hold on a minute, everyone else has got to be feeling the same way I am. I wanted to give as much as I could because it had taken me nine months to just get started. I thought well if I could help people get past that nine months really quickly and help them just get to where they wanted to go, it’s just good karma. I like it. I like to give them … Heather:        Absolutely. I think that’s the place probably I first discovered you, so if you are listening to this podcast and are interested in learning more about the Xero ecosystem and you’re working as a bookkeeper or sort of the numbers assistant in the business, go and have a look on LinkedIn for the Xero Bookkeepers (International) Group. I find it an excellent resource to actually go and ask perhaps an in depth question and get some resources back. I know like … Gayle, you know that I go in there and ask a few questions when … it is isolating. You know how to generally do something but then you find something that you’re pondering over and perhaps to my discredit some of the things I sometimes work on are a few things that are bespoke in that it’s like the first time I’ve come across them. It’s like how do I resolve this? How do I get through this? I work as a freelance so there’s no one in the office to … around the water cooler to discuss that with. You kind of want to be private about it but you still want to have some good resources out there, so I really benefit, I really find working in that group, all going in and discussing in that group beneficial. As you said, I think it’s also really important to really give back to the group and to answer other people’s questions. I never really understand people who don’t go in and say, “I know the answer, call me.” Gayle:             Yes, I know. I’ve gone through it a couple of times and tried to weed out some people that aren’t contributing or sitting there and they come around personally and say, “Please, please can I stay? I just haven’t brought myself to say anything.” What I’ve found and learned about bookkeepers since I’ve been working as one is that they’re very shy. They’re incredibly shy and ... Heather:        Voyeuristic maybe. Gayle:             Amazingly talented woman and then when you give them this platform they just come alive. That’s what I like about that group. Now, there are a heap of Xero staff in there and a lot of accountants. It was all about, “Look guys, we’re the bookkeeping, you’re the accountant, we’re here to bridge the gap and help each other. This isn’t a war. That’s what we’re here for. These are our roles. Some of us cross the line and others don’t but that’s okay. We understand that but come out and just help each other.” We can’t take on … for me it was all about I can’t take on the world and help every business but I can help someone else help 100. Heather:        Absolutely. Gayle:             So there are about 800 of us in there now, so you know I’m hoping that group is helping at least 8,000 businesses grow. That’s kind of neat. Heather:        I always think it’s about helping the small business owner and if you can help the small business owner, that feeds on into their lifestyle, into their children being able to go to ballet class, into the freedom and flexibility to go down to the beach on a Monday when they want to go down rather than have to kind of stick to the 9-5 grind perhaps. That’s what I like to be able to do. So, essentially, if we can do that and give them that freedom through assisting them in that way, we’re sort of moving the whole world forward. Gayle:             Aren’t we, yes. Heather:        Superhero. So what activities do you do Gayle to grow your business? Gayle:             Mine is very much referral based. My growth is ensuring I go to Xerocon each year in Australia and in New Zealand, and then also attend the Accountant’s Republic workshops and there Republic Day which is they mentor accounting firms and ultimately … really accountants are my clients and their clients are who I train and help. Because my niche was to niche down and help accountants because they have got … most of them have got a couple hundred clients each. I did try for nine months to try and talk to those couple hundred clients but I found that they were all in different niches and I couldn’t get them to see the niches I wanted to work with which was very much that creative and the construction site, which include the tradies inside of it. So I found the accountants that had the tradies and went along and helped them. Heather:        Ah okay. So you go through the accountants, do you go and like do training at the accounting firms or do you just … they just facilitate that? Gayle:             It’s all virtual. Heather:        I should know that, sorry. Gayle:             It’s okay. But sometimes, some people want you to hold their hand, so if I’ve got accountants down the South Island and they’ve got … and I train all of the South Island clients obviously. Heather:        Yes. Gayle:             If I can get to them in the North Island when they need a hand hold, I’ll go and do that. That’s okay but they just have to understand that time does get cut down for the services we offer. Sometimes it can work out really well to move some of them forward because … I mean they’ve even got clients who want to bring their accountants to the training. I mean we haven’t heard that before? I mean that’s very cool. Heather:        No, that is very cool. It is an interesting evolution in that there’s a solution out there and we see a lot of business owners pushing to move to Xero. However, their accountant still hasn’t heard about it or they’re actually bringing the accountant along for the ride. So you’re getting this accountant ringing up saying, “What do I do now?” And saying that, rather than worry listeners out there, I have accountants who had never used Xero before and I said, “Look, I will come in and do whatever training you need so you know it.” But they picked it up and they said … picked it up really quickly. “I could see exactly what I was supposed to do and I worked through it that way so that was fine.” They didn’t feel that was        … but then I’ll get other accountants who want to learn more but on a high level they’ve found it very easy to pick up. I guess that’s a good thing to know. Now you mentioned Accountant’s Republic. What’s Accountant’s Republic? Gayle:             Accountant’s Republic is run by and owned by a woman called Viv Brownrigg. She grew her accounting firm up to over a million dollars and a global company called CCH actually bought it for its processes and systems and the library that she’d built. Now she’s a mentor to accounting firms in New Zealand and Australia. Each year there is like a Republic Day and I work closely with them because we both agree that our ultimate is to get bookkeeping out of accounting firms. I’m like going, “I’m here with all the bookkeepers. I’ll take all the bookkeeping.” It’s kind of neat. Sorry, aside thing, just going to a side issue for the moment is that because we’ve now got this national list of bookkeepers in New Zealand through the Bookkeeper’s Association and the group, LinkedIn group, it means that any leads coming in from her accountants through the country that I can’t get to, I can pass on to like a Bookkeepers. So being a part of that group has helped that network and we all share leads as such that we can’t get to. That’s what I promote is if you can’t get to them someone else can so pass it on, and that’s what Viv does. We are out there helping … I’m out there helping those accountants with the bookkeeping side and the Xero side. She’s out there actively promoting the fact that you shouldn’t be doing bookkeeping, you’re an advisor, go off and do that. It’s way too expensive for you to be training people on Xero and Receipt Bank, and any of the add-ons. It’s not your core business. Move us … outsource it and use Number Nurses. So it’s been great. We’ve worked together on that quite solidly for a couple of years now. It’s working really well. Heather:        That’s really interesting. It’s really useful to make those relationships with people that you … sort of those trusted relationships with people and grow and evolve in a sort of a complementary fashion. That sounds really interesting. So does she hold session days in New Zealand or days in New Zealand and Australia? Gayle:             Day in New Zealand and is moving … has a rather large library of workshops now which is great. Heather:        Fantastic. Excellent, I’ll put that in the show notes for listeners, a link to Accountant’s Republic. Thank you for that. Now Xerocon is … just for people who don’t know, Xerocon is the main country’s Xero conference that’s held … I think currently it’s held … there’s one in New Zealand, one in Australia, one in England and one in San Francisco or sorry, I should say America. I’m not sure if they’re held anywhere else but I know our Australian one’s coming up, is it September Gayle? Gayle:             August. Heather:        August, okay sorry. So the Australian one is coming up in August and I think the New Zealand one is in February, is that correct? Gayle:             Yes. Heather:        Okay, so if people are interested, again, I’ll put those in the show notes. Now you say that you grow your business and your customer base from attending Xerocons, so how does that work? Gayle:             Those are the accountants that I’ve met virtually. I’ll meet them, they’ll come up to Xerocon, I’ll actually encourage them to come up because of the atmosphere that the conference provides, you know, you’ve got between 800 and 1,000 people in a room over a couple of days. It’s awesome for them and their staff to come up. As they come up, I’m sort of the link between the bookkeepers there to here and introduce them to those bookkeepers and those accountants. When the accountants can actually see that there’s a bookkeeper actively promoting relationships between the firms nationally, it’s trust, you know, you build your trust there. The referrals will come a lot thicker that way than they will doing it any other way. I mean you’ve got a captive audience within a room and from day one I’ve always sat in the front row because I’m a bit of a geek because I don’t like anyone standing in front of me and blocking my view because I need to see everything. I’m so excited. It’s been great for the last few Xerocons, encouraging all the other bookkeepers to come up and sit at the front. We’re sort of the rowdy guys in the front row which is kind of cool. Heather:        And Xerocon, for people who are considering attending, it’s a huge amount of information but it’s a really positive … it’s just a positive fun atmosphere. It’s kind of like Disneyland for bookkeepers and accountants. It’s just so much fun to go there and meet so many people. So much of what we do is virtual, to actually touch base and actually meet people there and have the opportunity to have some longer in depth conversation with them is sensational. One of the things that really impressed me when I met you Gayle is you had a little nurse’s cap on. Gayle:             Yes, it is a chance to market yourself. Heather:        Branding, sensational branding. Gayle:             There’s a lot of accountants that still turn up in suits so we try to encourage them to bring weird branded t-shirts have some fun while you’re there. Heather:        Yeah, absolutely. Gayle:             You can see who’s been there two or three times. They’re the ones having the most fun I think. Heather:        Yeah, and one thing that really surprised me about Xerocon is whenever you go to conference they typically give you something. So Xerocon on the first day gave us t-shirts. I thought t-shirts, people are going to wear t-shirts so people are going to have to wear t-shirts. I remember getting up the next morning and I thought well it’s a nice t-shirt, what can I wear? So I put the t-shirt on and I’m not the kind of girl who’s actually built for a t-shirt but I put it on and it looked okay, it was actually a really nice quality, nice material t-shirt, and I put it on and I thought oh my, what if I’m the only person wearing a t-shirt. I got down there and everyone had their Xerocon t-shirt on and I was so happy. Yeah, it was very cool. I thought am I going to cope with this, am I going to cope with this? Everyone is going to see me wearing a t-shirt but no it was very exciting. I know that everyone I spoke to who it was their first one, so I’ve been to a few now, was just blown away by how exciting it was. I talk about a conference dance card, in that as well as being casual about attending the conference you really have to be structured and say, “Contact people beforehand. Either encourage them to go or say, “Hi I know you’re going. I really would like to spend some time talking with you. Can we do that?”” I know, for instance, I wanted to spend some time with you Gayle, so we actually walked to the conference … from the hotel room to the conference. Doing those things with people like jumping into a taxi with people, going to the evening events, actually don’t sit there and talk about sport, get out what you need to because this is your opportunity. So really work that conference hard. Gayle:             Yes, I mean it is very open to all of that. I just like the way that it all opens up with Rod Drury standing up in his jeans and his t-shirts and his sneakers, you know? That’s what it’s like and if anyone starts getting too corporate here, you’re fired, you know. It’s just so cool and I love that line. Heather:        Absolutely. What is very exciting, like you brought up Rod Drury who’s the CEO at Xero, is that he and so many other staff are available to talk to you. I know that I’ve been to accounting conferences of other providers in the past and trying to speak to anyone of a senior level, I was banging my head against a wall. As a writer I need to speak to … maybe not everyone needs to speak to people in that level but I need to speak to them to understand timelines, what’s coming out and what direction they’re going into. I’ve just found everyone so available and just sitting there talking to you. I know that, for instance, there was a little coffee area and Rod Drury just like sat in the coffee are and just like, “Come and talk to me if you need to talk to me.” As well as running around and doing everything that he was doing, it was like so accessible which I was really impressed about. Yeah, so that’s another good reason to come to the conference this year. You can actually touch base with so many of the staff members of Xero if you need to. Gayle:             And they’re all very real. Everyone is very real that you meet and it’s lovely. I have not come across anybody that I’ve gone and thought you were absolutely nothing like I thought you would be, you know, so it’s really neat. Heather:        Yes, I just had a funny situation in that I’ve had a virtual relationship with a gentleman I’ve done business with for about a decade. I always kind of had this impression that he was perhaps sort of a geeky, just a spotty, geeky, sitting on his backside doing spotty geeky things. He uploaded a photo of himself and he looks like Ryan Gosling. Gayle:             Oh my gawd. Heather:        I was like, “Oh wow.” Gayle:             Gorgeous. Heather:        Yeah, so it is funny that when you actually do meet someone in real life it’s very exciting. Gayle:             The other thing too is I always say to everyone, “Try and keep your LinkedIn photos as current as possible please.” Heather:        Oh absolutely. Gayle:             “So when we go to Xerocon, at least we can see what you look like.” Heather:        Yeah, absolutely. People come up and they launch into this conversation with you and you’re like, “Who are you? Who are you? Remind me who you are.” Gayle:             You’re smiling trying to look at their nametag. You don’t want to be rude or anything. It’s like “Oh okay, you had black hair in your photo and you’ve got red hair now.” Heather:        Yeah, you’re absolutely right. Update your LinkedIn photo, very important. What advice do you have for our listeners? Gayle:             I’ve got a couple of things here. Heather:        Okay, what would you like to share with our listeners Gayle? Gayle:             Okay the biggest thing I found is just remember it’s okay if people don’t like you. That’s one of the … it does break your heart when you’re with a client and they just don’t like you. Heather:        Yes. Gayle:             So just understand that they won’t and I went to a course, a Skillpath course once and the lady stood up and spoke about project managers. She said, “Just remember us. For every 60% of the people that you are going to meet in your lifetime won’t like you.” So if you work along those odds, it’s great, because you just keep going and saying, “Hello, hello, hello,” and it doesn’t matter. Six out of ten are not going to like you but it’s not because of you. So just remember that. That’s okay. Look for the 40% because they’re the cream that you want anyway. Heather:        And pass them on to someone. Just like if it doesn’t work just say, “Look, this isn’t working. We’re not communicating well for some reason. Would you like me to find someone else to work with you?” Gayle:             Absolutely. Heather:        Or just say, “Look, I think you need to maybe go have a talk with ...” I know that I have a network of people around myself who I will just pass clients on to. It’s simply boundaries, you know, they might not like the way you speak, whatever. So I completely agree with you there. Gayle:             Yeah, just find someone for them. Then always be transparent and honest. It’s easy to repeat the truth. Heather:        Yeah, absolutely. Gayle:             I mean especially in the industry we’re in now. It’s very global. If you drop in … like I’m very active on the Xero blog or in any of the groups and just out there helping as many people as I possibly can. I’m really consistent because I’m just honest and transparent. That is the part that a lot of people are going to gravitate to as well is that 40% that you want, they’re going to come and ask you. It isn’t rocket science but I find a lot of people aren’t kind of doing that. So when you start doing that then all of a sudden things just start happening for you. Heather:        Absolutely. Gayle:             Yeah, and then always make … I’ve always said to myself, “Make sure you make as many mistakes as you possibly can and laugh at yourself like you wouldn’t believe.” Heather:        Yes. Gayle:             Then get a group … what we’ve got is a group of chicks together we call the #smokinghotbookkeepers, and we just have fun. It’s okay that we’ve made a mistake. It’s great because they all come together and they say, “Oh, I’ve only done that four times this year. Oh no, I’ve done that six times this year,” and it’s good because I’ve only just done that once you know. Heather:        Yeah, absolutely. Gayle:             Laugh. It certainly helps you physically as well as mentality. Heather:        Yeah, and get that strong network around you. You did mention one thing there that I’d just like to just explore a little bit. You make yourself transparent, you’re active on social media, you actively facilitate the LinkedIn group. One of the things I’ve found with having a profile as a writer is that sometimes when people see you doing all of this they think that they can then directly come to you and seek free extended consultation with you. Gayle:             Absolutely. Heather:        You hear me? Gayle:             Yes. Heather:        So I probably never have a problem answering someone on social media about a question but when they do come … from my perspective when they do come to you for extended consultation, you’re moving into consultation, you’re moving into an area that I need to be insured for. Sort of you’re moving into an investment that you need to consider. People need to protect themselves from ... I think it’s really good to give out free and transparent advice and comment on LinkedIn areas and on social media but that’s sort of one of the … you have to have some sort of … do you agree that you have to have some sort of boundary there? Gayle:             I do and I learned that the hard way too. That was one of my blood noses. When I couldn’t get my workload out because I was giving away way too much time to other people and helping them, I then came across another add-on from Xero called Timely and it’s fantastic. It’s an appointment add-on which I use now. What I found is I spoke to a couple of friends in Australia and the States that were going through the same kind of thing and I says, “Look, it’s easy enough to say I’m really sorry. If we’re going to get into this, you do understand that I’m going to have to charge for this consultation.” I had a lot of accountants giving me these lines and stuff and they didn’t resonate with me, so I just went, “Hold on a minute.” I got into Timely and it was great because I book all of my training sessions through that. Then I found this wee button and you can put the button on your email address and if anyone emailed you I just email back and said, “Hi, just book me below, click the button.” Heather:        Yes. Gayle:             When they click the button, they’ve got to choose how much time they’re going to have me and how much it’s going to cost them. You know what? No one even came back. I had one person and it worked a treat because I let them down … they knew straight away and that’s the power of software. Love it. Heather:        Yeah, automation software. That’s fantastic. So that’s another Xero add-on called Timely that people can have a look at and that you can actually incorporate into your email. That’s another sensational, fabulous suggestion there from you Gayle. Thank you very much for agreeing to be on the show here with me Gayle. I’ve just got one more question for you before you leave. What advice do you have for you 17 year old self? Gayle:             My 17 year old self. Never be afraid to be you. Heather:        Cool, very good advice there Gayle. Thank you so much for giving up your morning and sharing so many useful tips and hints with everyone. I really appreciate it Gayle. Gayle:             A pleasure Heather, it’s lovely to spend time with you. Heather:        Thank you. Gayle:             You’re welcome. Mentions http://www.numbernurses.com/ https://www.facebook.com/NumberNurses @gayle_buchanan http://nz.linkedin.com/in/gaylebuchanan +gaylebuchanan http://www.numbernurses.com/blog http://www.workflowmax.com/ http://www.jobsheetapp.com/ http://www.Receipt-Bank.com https://www.skillpath.com/ LinkedIn group Xero Bookkeepers (International) Accountants’ Republic http://www.arepublic.co.nz/pages/home_accountants/about Xerocon Australia: https://www.xero.com/au/xerocon/sydney/ New Zealand: https://www.xero.com/au/xerocon/auckland/ USA: https://www.xero.com/au/xerocon/san-francisco/ UK: https://www.xero.com/au/xerocon/london/   ·         Contact Heather Smith ·         http://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/ ·         https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU/ ·         https://www.facebook.com/HeatherSmithAU   ·         http://www.linkedin.com/in/heathersmithau