From Cubicle to Cloud: How to Start and Scale a Virtual Professional Service Business

by Jennifer Brazer, Liz Gold

Overview

Anyone can have a good idea. Very few can turn it into a million-dollar one. Until now.

It’s challenging to start and scale a business. Choosing the cloud as your platform for delivery and headquarters presents a whole new set of obstacles. This guide will allow you to leverage the cloud to streamline your processes and maximize your profits. 

When Jennifer Brazer founded her company, Complete Controller, she disrupted and reinvented client accounting services (CAS), creating an entirely new cloud-based business model. Whether your specialty is accounting, therapy, design, law, or any other field, groundbreaking expert Jennifer Brazer will show you how to

• recruit, train, monitor, motivate, and mentor your staff without ever being in the same room;

• price, package, and present your service so its value is recognized and desired beyond geo constraints;

• build trust and reputation with customers, colleagues, and vendors without in-person interaction;

• develop roles and processes to support your model and measure business performance;

• overcome doubt, naysayers, and traditional model rigidity for your industry;

• keep the faith, even when capital and courage run thin.

This book is for entrepreneurs at any point in their journey to the cloud, providing indispensable tools that will set up a cloud-based professional service for maximum success.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626347618
Publisher:	Greenleaf Book Group Press
Publication date:	01/26/2021
Pages:	331
Sales rank:	1,063,896
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Founder and CEO of Complete Controller, a leading national business services firm, Jennifer Brazer believes that all business operators should have access to excellent financial data to fuel their critical decisions. She has developed efficient bookkeeping and records storage methods and a delivery system that allows businesses to stay securely connected to their financial data without being tethered to an office. Her solution promotes financial transparency and accountability, providing a critical foundation for success.

     Jennifer’s company, founded in 2007, has become the turnkey Client Accounting Services (CAS) department for CPA firms across the country allowing them to tap into her platform for single sign-on access to all of their client’s books and records, standardized practices, and unlimited bookkeeping talent. Offering both white-label and partnered solutions, the company becomes a strategic addition to any firm looking to add CAS to their service menu. Her #QueenofCAS hashtag references her journey, methods, and business model philosophies that have allowed CAS to move from a loss leader to an essential part of a firm, pumping revenue to myriad arteries.

     Attributing her success to the support of willing advisors and mentors, Jennifer is always looking for ways to give back, empowering the small business community through financial literacy. An avid supporter of entrepreneurs, Jennifer has built a 82,000-plus social media following for Complete Controller, and she is a guest speaker to incubators, students, and associations. Her passion for women in business has fueled her membership in the National Association of Women Business Owners for which she served two terms on the Orange County chapter executive board, as treasurer and a small business mentor. She is one of twelve elite members serving on the ADP accountant national advisory board and is well respected in the CPA community.

    To learn more about the tools used in this book or to get started with building your own CAS model, visit JenniferBrazer.com/workshops.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Why You Should Read This Book 1

Part 1 Screw Guilt 9

1 Take the Leap 11

2 Developing Your Business Model 19

3 Handling Complaints 25

4 Know Your Vision 37

Part 2 Make Meaning 45

5 Make Meaning for Your Staff 47

6 Make Meaning for Your Vendors 63

7 Make Meaning for Your Customers 73

Part 3 Bootstrap Boogie 83

8 Bootstrap Boogie 85

Part 4 Pedigree is a Dog Food 119

9 Overcoming Personal Bias 121

10 Onboarding Staff 135

11 Cultivate Success and Weed Out Failure 143

12 Another Lesson in Pedigree 153

Part 5 The Art of Delegation 163

13 Before You Pass the Baton 165

14 Passing the Baton 173

15 Preparing a Scope of Work 185

16 The Secret Sauce 203

Part 6 Killer Kpis 213

17 Measuring Performance 215

Part 7 Make It Personal 253

18 Finding Prospects 255

19 The Prospect's Journey 265

20 The Customer Journey 273

21 Strengthening Customer Relationships 287

Part 8 Give It Away To Keep It 299

22 Give It Away to Keep It 301

Afterword: A Word to My Profession 313

Appendix: The Toolbox 315

Recommended Reading 315

Tools of the Trade 315

Community 316

My Cluster 317

The Service Plan Menu 318

Client Journey Flowchart 320

About the Author 333

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“I’ve known Jennifer for a few years now, and it’s been a privilege to share some of the journey and see what she’s achieved and continues to achieve.  She is an outstanding person and exciting entrepreneur. Not in the throwaway sense—that word is too often used these days—but in the high energy, innovative way that asks questions, challenges, learns from mistakes, works hard, and is prepared to take risks. Get that right and you positively disrupt not just your way of working, but the ecosystem around you. Jennifer has had that impact in hers—wouldn’t it be great if you and I can have more of an impact in ours? Jennifer’s first chapter appropriately starts with ‘take the leap.’ This is an action-orientated, pragmatic book that inspires. Rather than stuffed with hyperbole, it provokes the reader to ‘take the leap’ —how refreshing! Happy leaping.”

—Daniel Richards, Business Development Director, My Firms App

“As a long-standing member of ADP’s Accountant Advisory Board, Jennifer Brazer regularly shares her keen insight into the opportunities and challenges of small businesses across the U.S. that helps ADP to continuously improve our solutions and programs for the accounting community. We appreciate Jennifer’s commitment to excellence, and value her unique view of client accounting services in helping us build a program that supports accounting professionals’ needs and helps their clients be more successful.”

—Erron Stark, DVP Channel Sales, ADP®

“It is simple. This book is fantastic. The world is changing, the way we do business is changing, and this impacts our small business owners. Today, we are not meeting with clients face to face, we are meeting them online and over video chat in a WebEx conference. Most of these business owners would have never done business this way but we were forced to overcome and adapt because business keeps going. Our business clients are resilient and learning quickly! Jennifer's take on how business owners can embrace the cloud couldn’t have arrived at a better time. This book provides insight that will show our business owners how to take the necessary action to continue to move business forward, in a different way. It is the spirit of our entrepreneurs that drives us to act quickly and continue to evolve. Thank you, Jennifer, for sharing this valuable information!”

—Sean Balkman, VP, Solution Advisor Manager, Small Business Client Solutions, Bank of America

"I always say, look towards the experts who have figured it out, and that is Jennifer! She has found ways to confront her challenges and turn them into well-thought-out processes, thus allowing her to scale her business. And now, she is sharing her know-how with us so we can create a business model that is scalable and lifestyle driven. The world is in rapid motion right now, and it is critical we find ways to focus on value-added activities in our businesses, which is why her book's timing is so critical for all of us to read. My favorite chapter, ’Cultivate Success and Weed Out Failure’—Jennifer takes you right to hard-hitting, insightful action steps! In her book, Jennifer puts forth the ‘Pen to Paper’ exercise to get us moving faster and eliminating the waste. I will use her book as a guide to remind me of what I can do in my business, and I will share her ideas with many others."  

—Theresa M. Ashby, PhD, MBA, COO,Kaleidoscope Media Services
 

“What a dynamically written, empowering, and educational resource for entrepreneurs looking to work in the finance and accounting field. Practical tips and guidance that touch on both technical and soft skills that any modern entrepreneur should have in the digital economy." 

—Simone Cimiluca-Radzins, CPA and Business Consultant