EP369: Jessica Fox - The Significance Of Cultivating Community & Connection - Part 2

Guest: Because I always preface things with, don't make my mistake. And that makes them pause and take note because then people know that if they do not implement what I am saying next, they brought it on themselves. You're listening to The Successful Bookkeeper with your host, Michael Palmer. Listen each week as inspiring guests share their secrets of success to help you increase your confidence, work smarter, and build a business you love. This episode of The Successful Bookkeeper is brought to you by purebookkeeping.com, the proven system to grow your bookkeeping business. Welcome back to The Successful Bookkeeper Podcast. I'm your host, Michael Palmer. And in this episode, we have part 2 of my conversation with Florida Virtual Bookkeeper owner and pure bookkeeping licensee, Jessica Fox. She'll discuss the lessons she's learned from her bookkeeping business journey. And you don't want to miss this valuable insight. So let's go to that chat right now. You built a business where You have systems in place, you have a team that can support you, and you get up to other stuff. What are some of the other things that you do inside of the community?

Michael Palmer: Yeah. So once my business grew and I reached capacity, I was faced with a choice. I could continue taking on more than I can handle and stress myself out, which I immediately disqualified that as one of the options. And then I had to either stop growth or continue hiring to be able to adapt to that demand and expand capacity. And I toyed with hiring for a while and it was very enlightening, but the biggest takeaway that I got was I did not start my business to build a bookkeeping empire, and it's okay to say no. Because before, I felt like anybody that came to me, I needed to take them on. So last year in December, I was faced at that crossroads again. So I go through cycles and I make a decision and I am happy with it. And then I am faced with that same decision again. So last December is when I decided, given the current environment, you know, natural turnover and having to hire and stuff, that part does not bring me joy. I am just going to keep my team as is and keep my capacity capped. So right before what is historically my busy season, I closed to new clients and I thought I was just going to have a waiting list for a couple of months. I set it up December 15th, I figured By March, I'll be able to take on new clients. Here we are in June and I still have a waiting list and there's a 2 to 3