OM8: Melissa Laverty | 5 Sizzling Secrets to Running a Successful Business

Meet Today’s Guest: Melissa Laverty Melissa Laverty is an accountant and owner at AccountAbility Tax and Bookkeeping. Over her 20 plus years on the job, she has helped hundreds if not thousands of solopreneurs and family run businesses navigate the financial aspects of their business. Her goal has always been to keep as much money as possible in her client's pockets. Tell us this story about Melissa. How did you get to be the expert in the finance area? I often joke that there's two types of people in the world that are self-employed, ones that have planned it out, sought it out, maybe they had a business plan, and then enacted that business plan. And then there's others that woke up one day being self-employed and saying, How the heck did this happen to me? Yeah, I would certainly be one of the latter. I found myself in a situation I had been working for a bank for a number of years, I was very disappointed with an annual review that I had, I was promised the world and disappointed. So I left that job not really knowing what I was going to do next. I was lucky enough to get a receptionist position, working for my now business partner in a small bookkeeping and tax firm that he had just started. And then he and I have been working together for over 20 years now. So it was a couple years into that relationship that we decided to take the leap and break away from the situation that he was in and sort of venture out on our own. Share a little bit about what your role looks like now. It has absolutely morphed over the years we’re now 20 years into it now. We have a team of both bookkeepers and accountants that do a lot of the dirty work. So my role right is really amazing. I love my role. Now I run the business and am responsible for managing hiring, all that kinds of stuff. But I get to work directly with the clients, whether that's a strategy role, or if they're new to us  and sort of triage their situation and get them on board. Get them to the right people on the team, and just sort of overall oversight of the whole business. We really are sort of a family here. Family comes first, we make sure that everyone is taken care of and we have a different culture than I would have if I was really working for anybody else. So I think that's probably my favorite thing about being the boss. Melissa has some really great information to share about how to run your own successful business so you too can have more balance in your life. Melissa, what is that? What is it that you want to share with our audience today? I mentioned earlier that it was about four or five years before I really even took ownership of my business. It took a few more years to wrap my head around, what should I be doing? What should I be doing differently? What should I be doing next? And so in sharing these five tips with you, I'm hoping that you get to your goal faster, and that it doesn't take you 20 years to have a scalable business that gives you the freedom that you want to enjoy in your personal life. Tip #1 – Be honest. Be honest with yourself. Be honest with your clients. Do good work, do what you say you're gonna do. If someone hires you to do a job, do a good job, just be honest with yourself. 'm a firm believer in what you put out there will come back to you that has been proven to me again and again over the years. Tip #2 – Figure out your special sauce. What are you really, really, really good at? What are your talents? And then what areas do you struggle? What areas of your business or really even of your life are such a chore for you that you put them off and put them off and put them off and never get around to them? Be honest, figure out what works and then build a team to fill the holes in. Tip #3 – Setting goals. I'm a big analogy person, imagine that I am feeling a little bit chubby, and I...