Ep. 247: Adam Lean - Escaping the Accountants Trap

Tune in to listen to Adam Larson as he hosts the Count Me In Podcast, featuring a special conversation with Adam Lean, the CEO and Co-Founder of TheCFOProject.com. Lean shares expert insights on transforming the role of the traditional CFO, offering practical advice and real-life success stories. Don't miss this insider's look into the future of the accounting profession!

Full Episode Transcript:
< Intro >

Adam: Greetings, accounting professionals. Adam Larson here, host of Count Me In, and today we embark on a transformative journey with Adam Lean, the visionary CEO of TheCFOProject.com.

Prepare to break free from the shackles of the accountants' trap. A pervasive challenge that confines so many to a transactional purgatory. In this conversation, Adam unveils a potent cocktail of liberation, strategic transformation, technology-driven empowerment, and high-value service mastery. So join us on this first podcast of 2024, and together, let's rewrite the future of accounting, one empowered professional at a time.

< Music >

Well, Adam, we're really excited to have you on the Count Me In podcast. And you are the leader at The CFO Project, and you have a podcast called the Accountants Trap, and you mention that a lot. Maybe you can start by defining what is the accountants' trap, and why is it a challenge for many firm owners today?

Adam Lean: Yes, that's a great question. We have this saying here at The CFO Project, we want accountants to escape what we call the accountants' trap. The idea is that accountants, and when I say accountants I mean accountants, CPAs, bookkeepers, enrolled agents. Traditionally, accountants are trading time for money. In order to make more money they either have to work more hours, which there's, obviously, not many more hours you can work, or you have to take on more clients.

Well, the thought of taking more clients on, in order to make more money is depressing to a lot of accountants. Because most clients are high-demanding, low-paying clients, and they give you all their paperwork at the very last minute, and the idea of taking on more clients is not appealing to most people. And it's a trap because you can't raise your prices. You can't raise your prices because there's always another accountant that's willing to do it cheaper than you.

And if you think about it from the viewpoint of your client, and we have to always think about it from the viewpoint of our clients. On the laundry list of things that a business owner has to think about, during the day, accounting falls towards the bottom.

They think of accounting as a commodity, in a sense. It's like a gas station; you're driving down the road and there are two gas stations next to each other, one is $0.50 higher. Most people are probably not going to go to that gas station because they view fuel as a commodity, it's interchangeable. And the same thing with accounting and bookkeeping services.

What you do, A, they really don't understand, and, B, they feel that any accountant can do it. Any accountant could put the tax return together. Any accountant can do the books. So why would they pay you more, significantly more, than the average accountant? They wouldn't.

And, so, this is the trap; to make more money you're forced to work more hours for little pay, with high-demanding clients. And, so, we suggest that there's a better way.

Adam: I would hope so because, that would be really frustrating as time goes on, and to have to get more clients. And if you're an internal accountant, within a corporation, you have to help all the different operations of the business to get everything together, do the budget, and that can bring a different type of accountants' trap challenge.

Adam Lean: Yes, absolutely, your candle is burning at both ends, and there's no give.

Adam: Yes, there's no give at all. So how important is it? Because, like you said, a lot of times for owners, they don't understand the importance of the accountant. How do you change that role for the business owner, if you are the CFO, if you're the controller, you're within the organization, and you're trying to say, "Hey, this is an important part." How do you help change that view, at the top of the organization?

Adam Lean: Yes, this is the frustrating part because accountants are very valuable, they're needed. But the people that use accountants; so the company you work for or your client, if you have a business, and if you work for clients, they don't view it that way. Which, again, goes to what I was talking about with the accountants' trap. They don't view what you do as important as they should. Having great books is important, it's needed. And what you do to ensure that the books are kept accurately and timely, and the taxes are filed, is very important.

But until your client, whether it's your boss or whether it's your actual clients, business owner clients, until they view you and your work as highly valuable, they're not going to pay for that. So the idea is to shift in your client's mind, in your constituent's mind, your value.

So instead of being thought of as the person that just keeps the books or that just does the taxes. Because you have to remember that your client doesn't really understand what you do. You know what you do, and so you know all the effort and time and energy you pour into it, but they don't. So they're not going to place the value on it as much.

But if they can wrap their mind around your value, then, they will find you more valuable. Which means they'll pay you more and you can escape the trap. So the idea is to be the financial professional, in your client's life, that they actually want. And what is it that most business owners want? They want someone that they can trust, to tell them what to do to have a growing and successful business.

So if you, as the accountant, can be that person that a client trusts to tell them what to do. To give advice on something that they really care about, which is their business, then, your stock with them will go dramatically up.

They'll pay you as much as you command, as much as you want, and they will not think of you as just the person that records the books or just this commoditized, necessary evil that I've got to pay. And they'll start to view you as somebody that's a trusted confidant, an advisor, somebody they want to talk to every month.

Adam: Yes, that advisor, the term that we use a lot is that business partner. You want to be that business partner, not just the number cruncher.

Adam Lean: That's right. You'll still provide the same value, that in your mind they need, which is accurate books, taxes. But you're going to shift the value in your client's mind. Which, I mean, let's be honest, it's really the only thing that matters is your client perception of you. That's what's going to pay the bills. If you...