Now that you’ve had the chance to listen to our Strategic Planning Series intro, we wanted to introduce you to our company, PJS & Co. CPAs, and our background. The purpose of today’s episode is to give you a background on our firm, our virtual business model, our commitment to work/life balance, and more about why we started the podcast, Cultivating Business Growth.
What we cover in this episode:
- 01:50 – Background of PJS & Co. CPAs
- 08:30 – Virtual business model and benefits
- 13:10 – Work/life balance commitment (for our team and our clients)
- 17:55 – Why we started this podcast
- 22:40 – What we want our listeners to gain from Cultivating Business Growth
Background of PJS & Co. CPAs
Katina Peters, Jami Johnson, and Jaime Staley had actually never met face-to-face before going into business together! That shocks quite a few people when we talk about the backstory to our firm.
They met and formed a working relationship after joining the leadership team for another virtual firm. When the opportunity presented itself to purchase the book of business, they quickly decided that it was the right option. There were many questions involved in purchasing the business, but they never hesitated about whether these were the right women for the partnership.
Katina, Jami, and Jaime were able to build the trust needed to go into business throughout the year they spent together at the prior firm and meeting through phone calls and GoToMeetings. They knew the work ethic that each brought to the table would serve the business well moving forward and were excited for the autonomy that owning the business would bring. They all share similar ideals about work/life balance and what that would mean to their future team.
Virtual business model and benefits
PJS & Co. CPAs has been cloud-based since the beginning. The opportunity to work virtually is mutually beneficial for our clients and our team for multiple reasons.
- Convenience is one of the benefits we are able to offer by delivering business advisory services virtually. With experience working in the brick and mortar firms, we didn’t see our clients face-to-face too often and communicated primarily through phone and fax. With programs like Zoom and GoToMeeting, we are able to connect via webcam and screen share, which helps to break down the barriers that working virtually can present.
- Partnering clients with business advisors based on expertise is another perk. The ability to serve clients anywhere in the United States allows our firm to match our clients to a CPA based on their background, experience and education vs. geographical location. If one of our clients in Georgia needs an advisor with a background in construction, we can partner them with a CPA in Montana who has that extensive knowledge without limitations. We feel we are able to better serve our clients this way.
- Flexibility is another highlight our clients have seen in working with us. We are able to work together to find a schedule that works for you and eliminate the time needed to commute to an office.
And finally, our team is made up primarily of working mothers. We are able to continue our careers without sacrificing time with our families. We have all worked hard to establish our careers, obtain degrees, etc. and the ability to have the flexibility to take a day off to attend a field trip or be able to leave every day at 2 o’clock in the afternoon to pick up our kids from school is an amazing benefit.
Work/life balance commitment (for our team and our clients)
At our core, we want to be a part of driving this shift in society. We set schedules and goals based on our commitments to this balance. In addition to our own firm, we are passionate about getting business owners to where they’re comfortable. We want to help you see there is a way to grow a business without sacrificing your desired lifestyle. And operating virtually isn’t the only option. There are many ways to accomplish work/life balance, whatever that means to you.
We do this within our own firm by setting expectations clearly to our clients. In order to make something like this work, effective communication is a must. Business owners have to protect their time and setting boundaries and expectations and communicating them effectively are all crucial to success.
We aren’t just saying it; we are walking the walk too. We don’t want our team or our clients to be stressed or burdened. We talk about workload and incorporate desired lifestyle into the strategy for the business.
Why we started this podcast
We started Cultivating Business Growth because we wanted to reach out and make an impact. When we were looking for podcasts there wasn’t much available when it comes to accounting and how to incorporate that into strategy and get to the next level. So, we thought that we could add to the conversation and fill a void. We needed a forum to share information and help push and motivate business owners. We want to help business owners in general with how to look at numbers from a different perspective, improve financial awareness and mindset.
We also wanted to push ourselves to the next level, try something different and expand, like we advise for our clients. This project keeps us innovative and thinking of other ways to serve our community. We want to have a positive societal impact.
What we want our listeners to gain from Cultivating Business Growth
Our passion and drive is to be the business profitability and growth advisor that will help business owners get to the next level. We want you to be able to take this information and use it to change the trajectory of where your business is going, get there more quickly, and/or improve your work/life balance.
We want to discuss topics that will bring things to light that could be unknown altogether or that may have been lost along the way.
Ultimately, our dream is to hear back from business owners who have found this content helpful in their journey!
Conclusion
All three owners, Katina Peters, Jami Johnson and Jaime Staley had never met face-to-face prior to purchasing the firm. They were able to form the trust necessary to go into business together by working together on a leadership team for another virtual firm. When they purchased the business, they agreed that work/life balance would be integral to the success of the firm.
As a virtual firm, we are able to offer many benefits to our clients and team. Convenience, flexibility and partnering clients and advisors based on expertise are among the multiple advantages to operating in a cloud-based environment.
Work/life balance is a large part of our mission as a firm. We ensure our team is honoring this by working it into our strategy and goals and make it a point to discuss this with our clients as well. Work/life balance means something different to everyone and we want to ensure that our team and clients are fulfilled and living the lifestyle they desire while also doing work they enjoy.
We started this podcast to share the information we have as business advisors and CPAs. We want all business owners to be successful and have access to the information needed to push your business to the next level.
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