Case Study: Sonia Narvaez, CPA PA

Diligent at bettering her practice but not identifying the real problem.

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CLICK: Video Transcription

[00:00:00] Trow Trowbridge: What motivated you to talk to me?

[00:00:01] Sonia Narvaez: I’m constantly looking for ways to better the practice. I kept thinking there’s gotta be something better. I just don’t know what. When I got your emails, I started thinking it looks like there’s something I could learn from him. I sent you that email that said, “Okay, let me see what you’ve got.”

Q: What was the problem that you had in your firm?

[00:00:19] Trow Trowbridge: What would you call the problem that you had in your firm that you had noticed?

[00:00:24] Sonia Narvaez: I didn’t know the problem. Talking to you, I started uncovering the problem. I don’t think we know the problem a lot of times. I don’t think we understand what the problem really is. So we think we do, but we don’t. And there were things I didn’t even know that, now talking to you, seeing things in action really clears things up. But until we started really looking and talking to people, it was very difficult to see because I was in my own world of trying to get things done.

Q: What was keeping you from achieving your goals on your own?

[00:00:52] Trow Trowbridge: What was keeping you from achieving your goals on your own?

[00:00:55] Sonia Narvaez: I had no idea what the real problem was.

[00:00:57] We understand the business in the sense of the mechanical function of profit and loss and tax return, but many times the clients don’t even understand the value of what they’re getting.

[00:01:09] And I think the problem was not being able to communicate. Looking at the past data, it was never a way to communicate very well. It was just not happening. We got a lot of questions, "what are you really doing for me?" And they weren’t even paying for much anyway. It’s just interesting how you start realizing, “WOW, aha, this is what I’m missing.”

[00:01:32] And when you start seeing clients change, even the difficult ones, you start really feeling the difference of what you’re really accomplishing, what changes are really happening.

Q: How do you work with clients now?

[00:01:42] Trow Trowbridge: How do you work with clients now versus prior to joining the program?

[00:01:50] Sonia Narvaez: With different approach. I’m definitely listening more. I still think I could learn a lot more from it, from the ongoing interview, but definitely a different approach. More listening to what they want rather than what I need to tell him they should have. And slowly but surely, discovering what they don’t know they really need.

Q: How do you listen more now?

[00:02:14] Trow Trowbridge: You said listening more. How do you do that? How do you listen more now?

[00:02:22] Sonia Narvaez: A couple of ways. One is reiterating what they’re saying to make sure that I actually got what they’re saying. And the other way is actually let them talk about what’s really bothering them and then I can pick up what may need to be done and making them somehow tell you what they need and basically go, “We can handle that.” But now they told you and that becomes so much more valuable because that’s what they really perceive as their need, not what I tell them how it should be fixed.

Q: How has your practice’s revenue transformed?

[00:02:59] Trow Trowbridge: What has [00:03:00] been the most transformative part of the program in terms of your revenue?

[00:03:04] Sonia Narvaez: Basically our own current clients, exploring new options on our own clients. Just one client alone, we are billing on advisory, about $5,600 a month.

[00:03:14] Trow Trowbridge: That’s a change for you?

[00:03:15] Sonia Narvaez: That’s definitely a huge change.

[00:03:17] We had a hard time trying to charge a tax return for $5,000 in a whole year, and that was a lot more work. It was not as entertaining.

[00:03:25] I really enjoy it. It’s really getting in and helping people change their lives.

Q: What would you advise CPAs struggling with not enough money or time?

[00:03:29] Trow Trowbridge: I am really enjoying watching your transformation and seeing the clients respond to your new offering. I don’t think they’re used to that type of relationship with their accountant. What would be your number one piece of advice that you would give to CPAs struggling with too much compliance work and not enough money, or not enough time?

[00:03:53] Sonia Narvaez: From my own understanding of how I have changed, I’d say spend a little bit of time understanding it’s not something that is gonna come right away. It’s one of those things that you have to listen to it, and your own mind is gonna be trying to resolve and change whether you’re being told. It takes a while, it takes a few meetings. It takes actually, a live thing. Honestly, you got on some of those meetings and started making a big difference, especially with the real hard clients.

[00:04:27] And one, I think I just got on my own because I had already learned a lot and he just wanted to also make changes. But it takes some time to really even understand it. That’s the biggest thing here, is truly understanding what you’re trying to do, what you’re trying to change.

Q: How does it feel looking at the future of your business?

[00:04:43] Trow Trowbridge: How does it feel to have two or three of these nice, big engagements? You might get a second 5,000, a third 5,000 a month. How does that feel as you, as the owner looking at the future of your business?

[00:04:57] Sonia Narvaez: Obviously the money coming in is a great thing. There’s other things that you need to look at.

[00:05:03] How much do you wanna devote to those clients and how you can prepare your practice for it to be absorbed correctly and for the right work. Because you obviously want to give the right value for what you’re getting paid. Personally, I wanna make sure I do so much of this, but then I also have an office that builds in and brings in and takes some of this work.

[00:05:24] The money is good. The long term planning, the long term clients, the long term word-of-mouth, the advisory and everything that you’re learning is an addition to the money I see coming in. But definitely the extra $5,000, how many can I fire of the little ones that I honestly don’t even wanna be dealing with or do any business with? It’s just a really nice mindset change.

[00:05:51] Trow Trowbridge: You hit the nail on the head. Having that mindset change about the future is freeing, isn’t it?

[00:05:57] Sonia Narvaez: Oh, it definitely is.

 

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