Why We Aren’t Laptop Lifestyle Accountants | Edmonton Accounting Firm

You’re the sole called professional. They carry around this laptop and they’re working on, you know, they’re traveling here and they pull out a laptop for five minutes and they knock out the work and they spend the other seven hours. Are they jumping off of cliffs and sitting on the beach?

Yeah, I can see why. Cause it’s mad.

Hi, thanks for joining us for another episode of ask spurl CPA. Today we were talking about why we aren’t laptop lifestyle accountants at Evans in accounting firms, Berlin associates. So why we aren’t laptop lifestyle accounts. Edmonton Accounting Firm, I have Trevor here with me again in Sherborne olds. Do you know very well there’s a lot of laptop lifestyle Internet marketers too? Yeah, absolutely. I mean they, they sell the dream and they go to go on vacation on some island somewhere and they make a whole lot of videos selling the idea that you can for only a few hours a day while relaxing on the beach, having sipping a Mai Tai, make millions of dollars in your spare time. And that just simply is not reality. And that’s right. So the, the quote that we have here at the Jim Collins Co author, six visits books, including one of my favorite good to great, which we always have on on the shelf there and it says the thoughtless reliance on technology is a liability bottlers for lines of technology is a liability.

Um, and the statistic that I could throw at you is on average it takes an average of 23 minutes from once you get distracted to reach your peak level of intellectual performance once we were interrupted. So all of those people in working interrupted 23 minutes before you were as smart as you should be. Um, in the story that I have is there’s a bunch of, you know, often it’s software manufacturers out there and they’re trying to convince accountants and other professionals that if you use their software that you can completely automate your life and work less. You don’t work four hours a week and just hit the button, the send button everyday and the clients will, we continue to pay it that be nice. That’s what, that’s what they love you to believe. I think some of the software manufacturers, and that’s what they sell it on.

So, uh, Trevor, what is, what are the questions that a, you don’t punish your clients should be asking? Well, let’s start off with what his laptop lifestyle. The laptop lifestyle is a, someone who carries around this lap that they’re the sole called professional. They carry around this laptop and they’re working on, you know, they’re traveling here and they pull out a laptop for five minutes and they knock out the work and they spend the other seven hours a day jumping off of cliffs and sitting on the beach and, you know, a waving the re, Edmonton Accounting Firm, the, uh, the, the ski GX or off the water. Um, that’s the laptop lifestyle. They’re, they’re, they’re, they’re working here, they’re working there. They pull it out for 15 minutes and worked for an hour here. Um, you know, it’s, it’s the opposite of coming to the office, the grind.

It’s the opposite of that. Now, do you use the software and technology to automate processes? Yeah, we still do. You know, we believe very heavily in technology and automating, you know, anybody who looks at our, um, you know, our computer set up there, you just start to begin to, you know, see how much we believe in technology. So anytime we can automate, you know, uh, Edmonton Accounting Firm, work, we’re definitely gonna use that to her advantage and try to automate that work. Edmonton Accounting Firm, you know, to invest in that technology, both the hardware and the software to make that sort of work easier. Now, do you believe this accomplishes low level worker high level work? There’s the crux. This is hill. The machines have not taken over yet. Uh, some, cause like Gary Vaynerchuk always tells us that in the end the machines wind. Um, but right now the machines have not yet taken over.

So the machines are extremely important tool to automate that little level work. You know, we don’t want people doing number crunching and we can take a bank statement, use architects recognition software, you’ll pump that in and make a general ledger. You know, that’s not the, that’s not why we’re coming into the office. And that’s not the grind. You know, we’re going to use the technology to, you know, reduce the, uh, the amount of low level work that we can then focus on that higher level work. Is the mission ads Berlin associates just to complete their work? No, I mean the mission, that’s brilliant. Associates help Canadian business beat the odds. So, you know, helping, you know, Canadian businesses, Edmonton Accounting Firm, beat the odds a little bit, you know, not congruent with laptop lifestyle, what we believe right now. What type of work do you do for clients that a save time on a little level work.

Yeah. So you know, we can get the, um, you know, we can get the software that uh, it starts doing that low level work, like the bookkeeping, um, the number crunching, you know, being set up bank feeds. So the bank has automatically, he know pulling records in w we buy all the software yet, you know, into it. I’ve heard your speech, I know exactly what’s involved. This is the reason why I don’t come to those seminars anymore. So, um, you know, we have the computers doing all the work that the computers could, can do. But the computers can’t sit back and do a high level financial plan. They can’t sit with the client, asks a standardized list of probing questions and peel away the onion. They’re not that good at it and you wouldn’t, you answered the questions, you ask them the questions. It’s the other things that they tell you in the answer.

Sometimes that matters. So you asked this question and they talk on a completely different topic altogether. You better have asked that question in person and on a survey and we found that you’re not going to get it if you just let them populate it and writing. Um, you want to do it by discussion and then assembling a business plan. I guess what, there’s no system in the world that you’re going to input a bunch of details and they’re going to output a business plan that’s going to help you grow your revenue. I’m sure you could, they could spit you out a business plan, but I would argue that it’s not going to be the business plan that’s right for you and maximize your chances of success. Now, what’s it like working on a laptop compared to a world class workstation like we have here? That’s the other thing here.

Um, you know, the, these workstations, you know, costs tens of thousands of dollars and you know, we’re not going to replicate that on a $2,000 Mac book pro, Edmonton Accounting Firm, working on a little tiny screen like this. Um, I liken it the other day. It’d be like when you go and try to work on a laptop after working on our workstations, it’s like when you first learned how to drive a, but then your parents take away the car and you have to go back to taking the bus again. That’s what it’s like going from these, you know, our workstations that we had set up here to going back to work on a laptop. It’s not that you can’t get it done, it’s, it’s, you’re still gonna get there. It’s just going to take you a whole bunch more time to get to the same answer. And you know, unfortunately lot of clients there, they’re paying for the laptop lifestyle on an hourly basis.

Even. Yikes. No flat fees out in laptop lifestyle. Yeah. Yeah. Now a question for you is, does it take longer to troubleshoot issues, uh, remotely? Yeah. So then you have your team and you can troubleshoot issues or rolling, but they’re working on their laptop and laptop or turn on and having a problem with the program and they can’t get that program installed. Um, no. Those are code and you’re trying to describe to them over the phone and maybe you’re doing a, a screen staring session and they’re watching you, you know, remote in and there’s a little bit of latency on emoting in it. I’ve done, trust me, I have done it and I’ve done it more than a lot of people who, who say they can do it, have done it. Uh, and it’s not as efficient as doing those troubleshooting items in the office.

And that becomes a problem when a client is paying by the hour. You know, even if they’re paying a flat fee, um, and they’re living the laptop lifestyle, there’s only a certain many hours in the day. So they’re wasting their time doing that. What are they not doing with that time? That’s the key now. Um, how is the collaboration process more efficient in person? Same thing. You know, we look at this and you know, I’m uh, uh, a student user. I’ve been using screen sharing software for years and, and even doing a diagram based software. Um, I’ve been doing this for, for years since the, the from open, we do remote client meetings all the time. We have collaborated with off site staff in the past. You know, we brought everyone in in how this, Edmonton Accounting Firm, in the last couple of years here, um, we can’t replicate the same level of collaboration.

You know, we can’t put nine things up on nine screens. We don’t have that sort of, it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and then have another, a whiteboard on top of it that we can draw things and talk it out. And you can see the reaction on people’s faces. Uh, you know, it, we can’t get the same level and certainly even if we get the same level of collaboration, it’s going to take us longer. Um, so either we can’t get there or it’s just going to take longer now. What’s more productive, deep focused work or stop and start multitasking workflow. Yeah. So people would have you to believe that you can just whip out your laptop and work for 50 minutes and be traveling here, there and the next place or you know, Edmonton Accounting Firm, you have this break in your life and you, you start and stop here and you work at three, at three in the morning when you, when you wake up and work for an hour and then go back.

That doesn’t work. Um, you know, it’s been statistically proven that deep focus work is the way to, you know, produce, you know, time on a task over time, you know, beats talent every single time. Um, so that sort of stop and start workflow is just a lot less productive. So, you know, if I declined, I don’t want to pay for that productive work by the hour for, you know, for sure. And even if I’m paying, you know, a flat fee, you know, my fees, you got to go somewhere. They’ve got to pay the employees. You know, somewhere. So if they’re using that stop and start workflow model, you know, again, what are the things that they don’t have time to do because they’re being less productive by stopping and starting in their, in their workflow. All right Josh. So how does being around other focused people help you from losing focus?

There’s a thing too, and we have to be able to admit that when you sit there by yourself, it’s hard. It’s a grind every single day, every day. Sometimes you’re not at the top of your game and you go into a location where someone else is there ready to go and they’re pushing you. And it’s not always from above the boss pushing. Sometimes it’s the person below there, they’re ready to go and they want their answer and they want the file reviewed and they’re right there in front of you. You know, it’s like, you know, playing on a, on a team and you get the, you get a hockey player and he’s trying to rehab from an injury and he’s sitting there skating around the ice by himself and he’s trapped or replicate that competition. Um, being in the game and being around the other place, they, they’re never able to replicate it.

It’s the same thing in a professional environment. You’re around other professionals, Edmonton Accounting Firm, you know, who are operating on a, at a lower level, they’re going to pull you up on days when you’re not, you know, you’re not at your peak, you’re peak level, you know, whereas if you’re working by yourself when you’re not at your peak level that day, I guess what, you’re alone for your own devices to get distracted and you know, unfocused and there’s no one there to kind of pull you back in. Um, and so that’s why I think, you know, being around other focused people, that’s not something you can replicate remotely. You know, that’s something that, you know, you have, you know, people going in the same direction and you have them going in the same direction, in the same location. It’s extremely powerful. And you, you, you just can’t recreate it a remotely yet.

Not yet. Not yet. Well, I, Edmonton Accounting Firm, my dreams are shattered or living the laptop lifestyle. Uh, thanks for that. No problem. We’re going to, but we’re going to live the, the real entrepreneurial dream and, uh, you know, um, help these businesses to succeed. So yes, we were. So, thanks so much for tuning in. Again, as always, you know, we look forward to any comments that you have, you’ll please leave them below. We will respond and you know, even use your, your, your comments to make topics for future videos and please hit the like and subscribe button so we can continue to deliver your tips on how to beat the odds of business.