From The TrenchesPaul Meissner
- Recurring invoicing payments
- Mental Health (was it too much?)
- Addons - email sharing stories again, no follow up, too soon.
David Boyar
- Start Up alley - some came to Xerocon too soon
- Partner story mini stages - ‘Xero’s got it’s soul back’
- Trenches event - Our best yet.
About Us
From the Trenches is brought to you by Paul Meissner from Freedom Mentoring and David Boyar from Sequel CFO. Proudly sponsored by BGL and The Outsourced Accountant.
From the trenches.
Hello ladies and gentlemen, welcome to From the Trencher's Real Life in the accounting industry. My name is David Boyer from SQL CFO. Join with me, Paul Eisa from Freedom Mentoring,
and we are brought to you by
the
Outsource accountant who's sponsoring our in-depth topic, Ivan, our virtual assistant. He's actually joined Twitter and engaging in a bit of banter. So.
They jump on board and get involved from the trenches, of course. Big sponsors, BGL, Australia's number one corporate compliance and superannuation software. Paul, welcome back after a break from Zerocon.
Thank you very much, David Heller listeners. Hello all. uh, what a waste. I feel like it's, uh, it's taken a couple of weeks to recover. What an absolute, uh, massive week we were up there early.
Uh, for, for a change GPS function, we had our own podcast party, we had, uh, we had work, I met a I met a client David up there who's based in Brisbane. Second time I've done this, uh, in the last sort of few years.
Been this client has been my uh tax client for, I think we worked out 10 years. I had never met face to face, but because I was in Brisbane we caught up for a beer before the, before the wrap party, so I knew intimate details about the family and financial structure, but had never actually met face to face,
so there you go.
Actually you mentioned Change GPS. I didn't put that in my stuff, but I had a lot of fun at that event, the Change GPS conference.
It was an amazing, yeah, that was good.
We
almost started a fight.
Time sheets, it's uh it is an issue that gets uh a few violent but it no it wasn't, David, you know, it wasn't at all.
It was blood and sweat smeared was not.
There was absolutely not. Anyway, no, it was good, it was a robust debate. Uh there was a a certainly.
Passion.
It's
actually amazing, so we were facilitating, we, we were on stage and we were just having a chat and we just started, we, we did audience Q and A and this conversation of whether or not you should do time sheets come out, and one firm said we're 30 staff and we don't do it, and the other one says we're 30 staff and we do do it. And honestly, Paul, it was, I felt very privileged that we were able to create a space where people could have that conversation.
And and and if you weren't, if you were a line ball, you would have learnt a lot from it.
Absolutely,
no, it was, it was a great discussion, especially about different size firms because there were bigger firms and had some good debates.
Thanks for having us, Tim Munro and the team for
having us,
absolutely. Uh, what that that exhibition hall, massive. But uh what's your overall
takeaways, mate.
Overall takeaways, so in, in true trenches style we've we've each picked three things, David, that we,
Uh, that, that we wanted to cover, the first for me, I honestly think I have really walked away from a conference with a 100% clear,
Takeaway that I can implement in my firm. I left there on, we left there on Friday.
Monday morning, actually Monday I was home with the kids. Tuesday morning I had a client, the, the Stripe integration into recurring invoices. I engaged a new client, David. I sent them a quote, I got it approved, I created an invoice and the client uh auto uh automatically set up their recurring stripe payments. I did that Tuesday morning after zero. This is going to be huge. Client engagement is an area that people have.
Really not often they've wanted it, but because of the cost and the complexity, this is inside 04 said that you
you went through a CA audit and flicking a client an email saying, are we doing this? the client saying yes was good enough to get through your.
Absolutely. This, this will bring this will bring client, proper client engagement from end to end, from quotes through to um through to payment.
A recurring invoice inside 0 for free, no extra, no extra sub subscription cost and a low merchant fee. This is, this is impressive, David. This is, this brings microbusiness right into that client engagement space. And I, I mean, I, I personally, I've said it, uh, quite a lot at Zerocom week. This is a, I think a real concern for people out there doing client engagement software. I honestly do. Not that people will leave, not that they won't have clients.
But it just, it really thins out that available market. All of the microbes that we're gonna grow up that should have otherwise, that can otherwise be sold into paying whatever it is, 100 bucks a month for, for software, we don't have to now, they can do it inside 0, big, big news, I reckon.
Uh, for those just looking for that part of the solution, it's, uh, it's pretty compelling. Certainly you're, you've tried it already and had a good experience.
And this actually, that, that function on its own may, may cause me, may give me the opportunity to re-engage all of my clients, which I otherwise haven't done because it's been on,
posted on
that
this is going to have a major, what did you say this will disrupt the industry, major impact on the
industry?
You used absurd language to overstate the importance of this minor administrative change.
I said I love it when a small fee.
has a massive impact and it will have a massive impact on my firm and also other firms that I've spoken to, David. I said it will change the industry. I believe it will, I believe we'll have,
there are so many issues in the accounting industry, slightly making it easier to collect money from clients is not going to change the industry.
Worst on ground, Paul Misener.
No, no, well, I disagree, David. I think um I think it will change the industry, uh, especially given other news in investment raisers where the total available market might not might not be there, but we'll do that in our.
In our best and our best and so
you gotta go to a different show to hear the end of that story.
Absolutely. Well, I
don't practicing missions raised $15 million which is a huge round.
$26.
26. 0 wow.
Really? Yeah, that's according to, that's according to the I think stuff that was out there. I there there is some money apparently that was uh coming off the table to pay out old investors, so I don't know.
The story is the way
it's a
big it's one of those things where like we we always say don't celebrate the race, celebrate business success. The flip side of the race is that they've now got the Xero now has a payments part which you'd think erodes the addressable market for the payments part of the PI solution.
Very interesting. Anyway, that was my that was my big take. but uh but also I, I struggle in other conferences to walk away with an absolute one thing and I've never done that before and basically go back first minute of the next of the next work day and it was pretty amazing for me,
the one thing I worked away from, so I actually spent the second day.
Day one, we were in media mode. We did a LinkedIn walk, which we got phenomenal feedback. So thanks everyone for your feedback. a lot of fun. It was unbelievably stressful. If you connected with me on LinkedIn, you got about 6 notifications saying David Bos live, so we apologize for that. It wasn't, you know what the tech problem was, Paul? There wasn't enough bandwidth.
At a tech conference,
a tech conference on either the 4G network or the
the event it was definitely the worst part of the conference was that you couldn't get phone calls. You could barely get phone calls and your Wi Fi didn't work on your phone. Looks,
yeah, it was, that was bad. Look, in a tech conference was a lot of fun.
It was a lot of fun doing the LinkedIn the big takeaway for me that I'm implementing FYI docs. Love, love, love it.
Completely changes dock management system, I've got a team overseas, this will help me see everything very clearly. It's that traditional CRM so that you can see everything for a client, and the thing that I like about it the most resonates with me, this user experience, it looks like HubSpot, which I'm used to.
Yeah, OK.
I really enjoyed it. I'm, I'll, I'll keep you updated as I start to implement that.
Fair enough. What was your, what was your big take?
Well, we did a lot of work
pre-erocon, like a lot, so we, we told accountants how to get the most out of it.
Um, also went to the next step to tell, uh, exhibitors how to sell to accountants. And that went very well because Brian told me, Paul, Brian told me that he sent it out to about 300 add-ons who were 300 people who were involved in Zerocon.
I've got a few comments.
I
did notice our listener count for that show went up by 3 above average, so, but I and I think that's important because I don't think they listened.
And in particular, Start Up Alley. Now it was great that Start Up Alley was really front and center. Like it was, it wasn't in the dark corner. It was, it was really prominent, which was cool, but geez, some of those people just weren't ready to, to be spending, yeah, including time and airfares and all that sort of jazz. Zerocon's a $1500 to $20,000 investment.
For, for anyone, yeah, at least.
Um,
I just think some of them weren't ready, you know, after 5 minutes of talking to you, if you just sound cool and interesting, but I don't know what I'm buying off you, you're not ready to be at a conference.
Yeah, it, it was, it was early, it certainly was early for quite a few.
Uh, they're struggling to know what to do. I also, while we're talking on the add-ons, my second point, um, which I agree with you, David, I think there were some that were there too soon, some really early, you know, they hadn't been proven, hadn't had some of the features.
Maybe they were there to get market feedback, but there's gotta be a cheaper way.
It would have been some and some flew from the other, the other side of the
world.
we're talking about Ainslie, clarity there, Paul,
and that'll that'll be good for a couple of years of Dev, I think, um, the, the other thing again, separate to that add-on that we just mentioned.
From the trenches. Another disappointing thing, David, uh, again, stories of sharing emails and uh and contact details, people were, uh, there was a few add-ons who were a little bit disappointed with their, their spot on the exhibition hall, they, they thought they were hidden down the back, but,
They really, that is just no excuse for sharing contact details that you have uh you have collected, I think that's really disappointing.
I'd
expect er would cramp can't clamp down on that very quickly. I it's not OK.
It's, yeah, look, it just, it seems to happen and happen and happen and I don't know, to be honest, you're dealing with a profession that uh well a, a profession that has quite deep ethics and you go into behavior like that, it was disappointing to see. Other thing for me, David,
There was a couple of add-ons I got excited by, uh, like I've said on previous shows, I don't get excited off by a lot of add-ons or a lot of features. I think there's a lot and I, but I'm a micro firm David with with uh with different needs.
There was a couple though that I'd uh given my contact details for and it's kind of ironic, uh, that I, I, I get followed up for people, from people who I otherwise don't know how they got my contact details. But the ones that I remember that I actually wanted them to come and chat to me, uh, I've heard nothing. And they were, and maybe that was partly because they were too soon in the journey or too small, but.
to follow it up.
Exactly, so I guess careful what you wish for, whether they do or don't have a sales team, but anyway, I, I, there's a couple I'm still waiting to hear from which I really wanted to hear from. Anyway, what else, what else? Well,
one of the things that that really was, yeah, and, and watch the floor walk if you actually want to see what it's like, we'll put a link on the email that goes out to from the tredges.com.au and sign up to our email, um.
One of the comments that was repeatedly shared with me at the after party and talking to people afterwards, Xero feels like they've got their soul back.
And I think where that really came from was the partner mini stages. So outside of the main big stages, there were these mini um platforms. Paul, how many people would have been there about 200, 250 on each stage.
Yeah, there was, and there's 442 of
them.
This is one of the ones that you spoke out on your journey, you told your story, you told your story. Um, well this, this comment that Xero got its soul back, I think is about the Xero community.
And, and I made the comment on the floor walk that Xero's actually pitching a lifestyle. It's one of health, it's one of taking time to look after yourself, one of servicing your clients through technology so it's quicker to serve them, um, and I think this, if I was Xero, and that's how people were talking about my major conference, I'd be very, very happy.
It it was, um, yeah, certainly the partner stages there was a lot of great feedback, uh, like you said, David, I spoke, people came up to me and for the first time they'd they'd seen other partners that were actually talking about their firm and and and Amanda Newton, a big shout out to Amanda who and Rob Stone who have both been working,
Very hard to get a lot more content for those micro firms. I think we, we hear a lot about, if you're a massively growing firm or if you're a um,
a larger size firm, and it's all about how many, how many pieces of tech you can turn on rather than anything else. But it's great to, to hear more stories from the micro firms. I think that is, uh, is very good. By all accounts, Amanda says, uh, was saying that there was great feedback, so we can only hopefully see more of that in the future.
Uh, no, it was absolutely fantastic, I think, um,
The engagement levels were through the roof, so well done to Rob and Amanda. Rob, Stone and I actually ended up accidentally on a 45 minute walk together, Paul. We were going to the after party, and uh we were waiting for a cab and, and I, and Paul goes, let's, and, and Rob said, let's walk. I said it's a bit of a walk, mate, obviously because I'm basically a Brisbane local these days. 45 minutes in Brisbane humidity, but jeez, it was a good chat. Good. Uh, my other, my final thing that my final takeaway, Paul.
From the trenches.
You and I ran an event. 95 people came.
It was a bit exclusive. Few people didn't get in, the, the, the guys who organized it were knocking people back. Uh, Adriana at BGL was just brilliant, did way more than I expected she would, was turning people away. But the good news is we're gonna be running more and more events. He's on the back of the lunch series we did in Melbourne, which got, I think, I think a 4.6 out of 5.
Was the rating we got for those events from the, the, uh, surveys that we put out. 95 people came to this one in Brisbane. There's gonna, we're gonna be running them in Brisbane and Melbourne over the next year, so stay tuned for those. These are special events where you can sit in the corner and get drunk if you want to, or you can have a really good conversation about real issues in your firm and in your business with Paul and I egging you on.
It was a great, it was a great night, David. It was a, it was a massive, uh, massive crowd too, very engaged, that was, that was very good. Uh,
I, I'll tell you that was a big takeaway from me from Xero. So there was, podcasting's become so big in the accounting industry, there was a specialized podcast booth.
Pretty nuts, like, it's, it's pretty amazing. Like we've been doing Zerocon for 3 years now. In the first one we recorded Rod Drury with a lapel mic wrapped around a receipt bank pen and I had to shove my fist in his face so that he could talk into the microphone.
There was some people with very snazzy gear, I from the trenches by far has the worst gear out of any one of these podcasters.
We were, we were put to shame by some of the some of the setups getting around. It was it was uh it was a it was uh.
These guys, these guys from Southeast Asia had this board with colors and buttons and it was unbelievable.
It was a, it was a full studio they traveled with. Anyway, David, that's, but we, you know, that's that's not our, that's not our, uh, we're lucky enough to turn up with all our mics. Yeah,
well.
Are you suggesting that perhaps maybe we forget to bring our mic sometimes potentially.
Listeners, I, I did get handed a pack of recording gear so I could go and land some ATO interviews and there was suspiciously 11 microphone missing, but that's alright,
cause there were
backups. That
redundancies
redundancies.
We had all of it from the other thing um that I that I found, so the last, last point for me on Zerocom was certainly a massive, um, uh, a massive mental health focus. I think there was a lot of, a lot of presentations that did,
Uh, that did focus on this, Craig Hudson.
Think the New Zealand manager, I don't know whether it's Craig. No, can't remember. Anyway, people people will know that was, that was good. He um, he had a uh a keynote session on his battle with with mental illness, um, and mental health. The some people, I think it's very good. I think it lists the, uh, at least we're talking about it, I think it's great. Some people maybe thought it was a bit heavy on the mental health content. I don't know, it's, it's hard to say it makes it.
It makes it certainly very heavy. Craig Hudson it was Craig, thank you, Craig Hudson. One of the uh ex rugby player, I believe, top level in New Zealand, uh, and now 00 New Zealand, I think, country manager, um.
The uh really respectful before his session to um,
Pre-empt the content and say the content is there, uh, and to dim the lights, I give and give people the opportunity to leave, um, under dim lights, which I think was just a touch that was really, really good.
So I left during that point because I do you know what, I went, I went for a swim, so a lot of people who've been traveling with me will know that I like swimming, that's my way of looking after myself. And I thought, I'm not gonna sit here and listen to a talk on mental health. I haven't been for a swim in 4 days, which is a big gap for me.
I left and went back to the hotel and went for a swim
on your so I missed it, absolutely. Um, was there anything else though? I think apart from that, um, Sydney will be interesting. Sydney will be, uh, yeah, certainly more locals, uh, will be there or will have access to it. I think it'll be really interesting to see whether or not, uh, how they expand that microbusiness content and what they can do with the exhibition hall, cos that just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. How are they gonna top a skate ramp?
Well, there's a question, do they even have to. Um, I think they need to focus on topping the content, the experience is fantastic.
It's the, it's all about the content now and make it easy for people
to connect.
It really wasn't much in the product sense, uh, either we, I suppose we used to in the past, not used to, but in the past we've had far more of those, um, throw your cap over the wall kind of we're gonna, we're gonna build the next big thing in a few years,
but
Matt Matt Paf makes the comment, this isn't about a product focused founder anymore, it's about a company executing a global ambition.
Yep.
Yep, and, uh, and the share price got a bump off the back of it. So that's all good things as well. Anyway, that is our wrap up from Zero Con, uh as always. Feel free to get in touch if you have any feedback, uh, otherwise, have a great week and stay tuned for the, keeping an eye out for ear out for the best and worst on uh.
Best on worst on ground for our normal content, cos David, we haven't done a content show for many weeks now, so it's time we we're gonna, we're gonna get back to that to keep an eye out for ear out for that.
Thanks again for listening to an episode of From the Trenches. David and I love to hear from listeners, so you can reach out if you've got feedback or story ideas, get in touch. I can be reached on Twitter at Paul Meisner or on LinkedIn, Paul Meisner.
I'm on Twitter at David Boyer, B O Y A R, on LinkedIn, David Boyer.
From the trenches.
