We recently connected with Lauren Colson and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Lauren thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about growing your team – how did you recruit the first few people, what was the process like, how’d you go about training and if you were to start over today would you have done anything differently?
No, I didn’t have employees at the start, it was just me and all that client work. I hired a virtual assistant (as a contractor) almost day 1, because there were a lot of things I didn’t know how to do and didn’t like doing. I realized I needed that support pretty quickly. I took a gamble with a woman I met virtually in VT who worked alongside me for 2 years and became one of my best friends. So grateful for her!
I began with CFO work only, but I quickly found that most of my clients needed bookkeeping. Either they didn’t have someone doing it or it wasn’t done right.
I knew that in order to succeed from the CFO side, I needed bookkeepers I could rely on. So I started to bring on contractors to fill that role. While the contractors were great, they had other clients/businesses they were working for and couldn’t give my company their full attention, and rightfully so.
I also knew I wanted to create a strong community feel. While we chatted when we were working together on clients, I wanted more. That’s when I decided to take a leap, which was terrifying and move to the employee model.
What scared me was bringing on someone full-time and providing them with their full source of income. It felt like a huge responsibility, and don’t get me wrong, it is. But it just freaked me out.
But hey, that’s what we entrepreneurs do right? We act even when we’re scared.? I was so grateful that my first employee was one of the contractors that had been working with me for two years. I already knew how amazing she was, professionally and personally, so it was a no-brainer.
I wasn’t that fortunate with all of our hires, we’ve had a few that didn’t work out, as everyone does, and we’ve learned a ton. Now, we’ve implemented two things that have really changed how we hire.
The first process we’ve implemented has to do with gut. Yep, gut. If anyone on the hiring team gets a gut feeling that something’s off or the person just isn’t right, we call it. Immediately.
In the past we’ve talked ourselves out of “red flags” and it’s NEVER worked. 98% of the time we’re right, and we save ourselves so much pain and time. It’s worth the 2% of the time our “gut” might get it wrong.
The second thing we’ve implemented is the way we pre-screening our candidates. Any candidate that makes it past a resume review, receives a request to answer a few questions (written) and sends a short video (from 1-3 minutes) answering a question.
We do this for a few reasons and we’ve seen great success. We’re looking for people that align with our culture and want to work with our team and clients. Candidates who don’t put in the effort to submit the questionnaire or type one-word answers, we know off the bat wouldn’t be a good fit with who we are and the level of service we provide.
SO it’s not as much about the answers/responses, it’s more about the effort. From there it’s interviews with our team and an accounting assessment to test technical skills.
If I were starting again today, would I do anything differently? Yes, tons, haha! But it’s all part of the journey and I wouldn’t be here today without learning some things the hard way. For anyone just starting out, I would definitely recommend the above interview structure. While it may take more time upfront, it’s definitely worth it in the long run.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?
When I started college (Go Noles!) I didn’t know what to major in. I knew I liked numbers and they made sense in my brain, there wasn’t much black and white, so I took a stab at engineering.
I soon realized that wasn’t the path for me and took another stab, this time into the business school in accounting. After completing the first intro class, I knew this was something that I would enjoy.
Once I started working, I saw the impact I had in providing the numbers, trends, and analysis to department heads, line of business owners, and business owners. I was ecstatic that I could do something I enjoyed and was good at, and really make an impact in the business.
I took my experience from large publicly traded companies to high-growth startups and ventured out on my own to serve these companies on an outsourced basis. Colson Strategies provides accounting and financial services ranging from bookkeeping to CFO/financial strategy for small to medium-sized businesses.
What sets us apart is that we truly care about our clients. We’re number geeks with people skills. This isn’t just a job for us, we want our clients to succeed and we’re there to cheer them on along the way. We take a proactive approach in everything we do.
Our clients come to us with messy financials, and we love helping them clean that up. It’s critical because messy financials means they don’t know what’s actually going on in their business.
They know there is cash coming in (or there isn’t) but they don’t know how much and they’re not quite sure what efforts are working or not working. Did that $10k investment in marketing truly show any ROI?
Our job is to break up all the noise and provide them with tangible information they can use to make the best decision in their business. Chances are they didn’t start their business to be a bookkeeper or a CFO, we’re here to serve that role for them so they can focus their time on the areas that drive growth in the business OR give them back time to rest and reap the rewards of all their hard work.
Being able to take all the numbers, which is sometimes a giant puzzle, and deliver relevant information to the business owner so they can make the best decisions, THAT is what brings us joy.
When you work with us, you don’t just get a person, you get a partner and a lifelong fan!
We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.
While I’ve never sold a business myself, I’ve worked with many founders and business owners who’ve sold their businesses. Depending on the size of your company, the amount of work and intensity can vary. But I can say this with certainty… no matter the size of your business. Having accurate, clean books going into the sale process will save you time, energy, and money!
Oftentimes, our team is called in to either completely redo the books for a company with a quick turnaround OR we’re engaged to help through the sale process. There have been times through the process, it’s determined the financials are incorrect and the valuation the seller expected is not accurate and much lower. It’s truly heartbreaking!
Get your books in great shape for a sale before you’re even thinking about a sale! Having good books will allow you to make the best decision for your business. It’s a win/win!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Oh boy, I’ve got plenty, I’ll share a funny one! Shout out to all my working moms on this one.
One of my clients was selling their company and it was a sizable sale. The timing happened to align with the birth of my second child…because timing always works like that when you decide to grow people and be an entrepreneur. HA HA…
I was excited to be working on the sale and determined to get the deal closed and still be present with my newborn. I was on a call to talk about the company’s tax structure. I don’t do taxes, we had a third party that did our taxes, so I didn’t think I would be talking much on the call.
I had my camera off and I was nursing my daughter during the zoom meeting. Well turns out I had to do most of the talking, which was fine until my daughter let out this huge newborn fart! (The kind of fart where you think, how did this tiny baby make such a big noise?!)
In a split second, I had to decide whether to address that it was my baby and give a backstory OR just continue on talking and let everyone think it was me. Which is what I ended up doing, I just kept talking as if nothing happened, while inside I was cracking up!!
I don’t even care what the other 15 people on the zoom thought, it was hilarious to me. That’s one of my favorite stories from what was a hard, but rewarding season of my life and the business!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.colsonstrategies.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_laurencolson_/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ColsonStrategies/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurencolsoncpa/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/colson_llc