The Wize Way

Episode 121: Wize Factor Chat: Johanna Eddy - MarginKeepers

• Wize Mentoring for Accountants and Bookkeepers • Season 1 • Episode 121

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What if you could transform your accounting practice to achieve work-life balance and business efficiency?

In this episode of The Wize Guys Podcast features WizeFactor Chat, we dive into the journey of Johanna Eddy, the founder of Margin Keepers. Starting her firm in 2017 to balance her career and family life, Johanna shares her experience transitioning from an auditor at a big firm to running her own successful business.

Join Wize Claudia as she sits down with Johanna to discuss the evolution of Margin Keepers, the challenges of growing a practice, and the crucial role Wize Mentoring played in her development. From struggling with capacity planning to mastering key financial metrics, Johanna opens up about the transformative impact of joining the Wize Elite program.

Discover how Johanna learned to measure capacity scientifically, monitor essential KPIs, and set up her business for long-term success and potential exit strategy. Her story highlights the importance of early investment in coaching and proactive management.

Whether you're an accounting practice owner looking to optimize your business or simply interested in the insights and experiences of fellow professionals, this episode offers valuable lessons and inspiration.

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Wize Mentoring:

From Wize Mentoring is The Wize Guys Podcast, a show about accounting and bookkeeping practice owners and the many stories, lessons, and tips from their experience of transitioning from a time-poor practice to a business that runs without them. I hope you enjoy and subscribe.

Wize Claudia:

Welcome Johanna to WizeFactor Chat. I'm really glad to be sitting down here with you. You've recently joined the Wize buzz so I wanted to talk to you for a minute, you know that we do the sessions to find the WizeF actor gen, so I was really excited to talk to you and see what made you attracted the first place and how do you feel like your development has been ever since you started. But I want to go from the beginning to talk about you and your business. What's the name of your business and when did it start?

Johanna Eddy:

It's called Margin Keepers and I started it in 2017. Great, and what was the reason that it started? Well, I worked as an auditor at a big firm, but I had started to have children and there's not a lot of flexibility, so I wanted to have my own firm where I would be able to still raise my kids and work to keep my career going.

Wize Claudia:

Awesome. So when you started from Margin Keepers start in 2017 to now, which is 2024, which is when you started ways to lead, what are the challenges that you're seeing now or that you saw a couple of months ago when you considered getting a coach or getting into coaching, like? What are the challenges you're looking to solve?

Johanna Eddy:

Well, a lot of the challenges are that we're like most of the practices like mine are started by an accountant, but you haven't had to run a business, which is a whole other job on top of just being the accountant. And in the beginning, it was just me and a way for me to make money for my family. But as it grew into a business and I took on employees, there was a lot of new challenges that were difficult to address for someone who's never been in an employer position. And as you start to add more employees, you start to question well, what am I supposed to monitor? What financial metrics are important to look at? Do you know what are the KPIs? Right?

Johanna Eddy:

There's not a lot of available data, I find, for accountants to rely on. Like you can't just Google. Well, do you know what percentage of this I should be spending or how much should I be paying staff? Right, it's all very skewed because you don't know what method they're using. You know to account and things like that. So I really wanted to find some help guiding me and running the company, and I had heard about Wize on a Facebook group where somebody was saying it was a very worthwhile consulting. Somebody was asking if they knew any consultants. And they asked, somebody said that Wize was very worthwhile for them. It was money well spent. So that's when I met with Jamie and he seemed very knowledgeable. He knew all the points to address and that's when I joined Wize.

Wize Claudia:

That's awesome. So basically, in a nutshell, you were looking for a blueprint. You felt like you needed a guideline to know what to expect as a business owner.

Johanna Eddy:

Basically, yeah, and how to set up the business? I guess correctly, like for later to be able to walk away from it, either sell it or leave it in the hands of other employees later on down the line, when I got closer to retirement.

Wize Claudia:

And on that. So since you joined, from now, what has had the biggest impact on you since join Wize Elite? Because you're in the Wize Elite select group of firm owners, which is where you have coaching, you have accountability, but you also have to do things on your own. So what impact has that had on you since you joined?

Johanna Eddy:

I think the biggest impact has been learning about how to measure capacity.

Johanna Eddy:

I didn't really have a method of doing that.

Johanna Eddy:

It was just kind of ballpark like I think this employee could handle this many clients and there wasn't a real like science to end. T here they taught me how to very particularly calculate capacity, which has helped me a lot because then I could see each employee's listing and know if I could give them more or not. I can explain to them how I come to the capacity and you know they need to discuss with me if they're going over because then that might mean that we need to talk to the client about increasing the fee if there are certain things we didn't account for in the original estimates. So that's, I think, the biggest help. Also, just knowing what key metrics to monitor. There are things that I've learned there that a lot of the stuff I had been doing to somewhat of a degree not as consistently or as accurately, but some things I wasn't even looking at and it's really helped to say, ok, well, these are the most important things I need to monitor at my firm and this is the best way to calculate them.

Wize Claudia:

That's awesome, love to hear that it was such a game changer, and actually many firms who joined recently, this is one of the things that they're most surprised about. Like, capacity planning is one of the key features that Wize has, and I think it's what most of the people I've talked with here at the Wise Factor have said to me. Like that has had an impact on them as well, and I think it's key because it also goes hand in hand with profitability. So after you realize who's really at capacity, and you can see some game players in your team that are really not, you know, doing the things that you think that they're able to be doing, so that's also a game changer in that sense.

Wize Claudia:

I wanted to ask you if you've been now implementing all of these things and if you are going from someone who didn't know how to manage to learn all of these things. So what would you say to Johanna before? Maybe you were hesitant at some point, like what if this coaching doesn't work as an investment? Like, what would you say now, with all the things that you've seen, all the conversations you've had that I'm sure are very insightful, what would you say to Johanna at that point Like how do you feel?

Johanna Eddy:

I'd let them know that you know the earlier they started the better, because the longer you wait, the more complicated it gets, and the harder it will be to implement things that we learn that help the practice succeed.

Johanna Eddy:

So I would tell them not to hesitate and to just go ahead and start doing it. I don't see that anybody wouldn't learn something from this type. There are just so many. And being in the elite group, you sit and you listen to other practice owners' struggles. I don't see that anybody wouldn't learn something from this type. There are just so many. And being in the elite group, you sit and listen to other practice owners struggle and even though you might not be having that struggle, you might have it at one point, or maybe you had it, and you can also give your feedback to if you had a way to solve it. So I think it's the earlier you start to really manage your firm in a way to set it up to be this company that's separate from you and not relying on you, the better career that you'll have and the better work-life balance.

Wize Claudia:

Yeah, totally, and I think many firm owners can relate. And you said something earlier, and now you're repeating it, about building a business that can run without you or slowly withdrawing from this business. Is that something you're looking after? Is that something you really want to achieve at some point in your business?

Johanna Eddy:

Yeah, I mean, I think everyone is going to want to get out at some point. You know, I don't feel that mine is. It's not a pressing issue for me, but it's something that I have to think about now. So when the time comes, I'm ready and prepared and I don't have to struggle. When I'm older, more burnt out, you know more with more stuff going on. To wrap it up, in order to exit Right, we should all be thinking about an exit strategy, because we all will have to exit.

Wize Claudia:

Exactly at some point, sooner or later, and, in that sense, do you feel like you're more, at this point, focused on growth, on getting the firm in order, sure, or, of course, getting out? I think it's not getting out, but which are the first?

Johanna Eddy:

Yeah, getting it in order so that before I keep trying to grow, I want to implement the stuff I'm learning at Wize and make sure everything is really good because I think that growth is easier if you're prepared, versus growing and then reacting. And Wize teaches us to think about the end right. You prepare. It's better to be proactive than respond, than reactive.

Wize Claudia:

That's awesome and thank you for sharing. I wanted to add one last thing to our conversation is that I would love to see tangible results or anything that you would like to share, that change from when you started now in a couple of months. So this video will probably be on some of our platforms and I will love to tag you and see you having a comment, like dropping a comment, saying, hey, from that video, I've done this and this and this and I've progressed on this. I would absolutely love that because I'm excited about your journey. I really talked to many, many firm owners and the testimonial is basically similar. It's people looking to be better and that's a beautiful process that I love to document. And when you see this video in a couple of months, you'll be like, wow, I've learned so much. So that's my last request.

Johanna Eddy:

Okay, yeah, definitely. I hope to see to the results.

Wize Claudia:

Thank you so much, Johanna. Very happy to talk to you today to get to meet you. I will talk to you soon.

Johanna Eddy:

Okay, thanks, nice to meet you, Claudia Bye.

Wize Mentoring:

Thanks for tuning in. If you liked this episode, please remember to subscribe and leave us a five- star review For more practical, Wize tips on how to build a business that runs without you, head over to wizementoring. com/ podcast to download a free copy of the Accountant's 20-Hour Workweek Playbook. We've included a link in the show notes below. See you in the next episode!