with Andrew Seguin
In this finale of a two-part conversation, Andrew Seguin of Seguin Financial reveals how he keeps his team happy and loyal with a four-day workweek, how he catches and addresses scope creep early, and how partnerships and referrals — fuelled by great client service — helped him double his firm to over a million dollars in revenue. Practical, data-driven, and refreshingly candid.
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This is the second and final part of Michael Palmer's conversation with Andrew Seguin, founder of Seguin Financial. If you want a candid look at how a bookkeeping firm doubles revenue without a big advertising budget, this episode delivers. Andrew walks through the real levers he pulls: a four-day workweek that keeps his team loyal, a disciplined approach to scope creep, and a referral engine built entirely on great service.
Chapters
- [00:00] Introduction and Episode Recap
- [01:18] Four-Day Workweek Announcement
- [03:30] Andrew's Fridays: A Work in Progress
- [05:30] Scope Creep: How to Catch and Address It
- [09:30] Time Tracking as a Profitability Tool
- [12:00] How the Firm Doubled Revenue
- [15:00] Partnerships and Referral Strategy
- [18:00] Service as the Real Differentiator
- [21:30] Going Virtual Across Ontario
- [24:30] Final Advice: Start With Something
The Four-Day Workweek in Practice
Andrew made the switch to a Monday–Thursday, 36-hour week — with no pay cut for his team. "Working one hour extra per day doesn't feel as a big burden, but you get a whole day off every week, all year long," he explains. The response from clients has been overwhelmingly positive, and the retention impact has been real. For Andrew himself, it has gradually freed up his Fridays too — without the guilt of stepping away while his team is still at their desks.
Catching Scope Creep Before It Costs You
Andrew's approach to scope creep starts with the team: coach them to flag anything that feels different from the usual work, then back it up with time tracking so the numbers tell the story. Rather than hitting a client with a hard "that's out of scope," his firm offers two paths — "we can show you how to do it yourself, or we can have a conversation about a monthly increase to accommodate this." That framing keeps the conversation collaborative, not combative, and gets results either way.
Partnerships and Referrals as a Growth Engine
Seguin Financial grew from around a million dollars to double that in roughly 2.5 years — without meaningful advertising spend. The fuel? Strategic partnerships with fractional CFOs, outreach to franchise head offices, and a deliberate focus on asking the firm's best clients for referrals. "Our easiest client to take on is a referral," Andrew says, "because they've done probably so much work behind the scenes that at that point it's almost inevitable that they're going to become a client." Referrals arrive pre-sold — and they rarely price-shop.
Service Is What Clients Can Actually See
Andrew draws a clear line between quality of work and quality of service — and argues that for most clients, only one of those is visible. "Business owners are probably not going to always look at our reports. They might not really care a lot about the quality of the work. But the service they can see." Being responsive — not available at 8 PM, but back within 24 hours with an action plan — has moved Seguin Financial into a different tier in the eyes of their clients and made referrals far more frequent.
Start With Something, Then Let the Data Lead
Andrew's parting advice is straightforward: start tracking, even if it's just two spreadsheets. "Without time tracking, you're blind. You're honestly blind to which clients are doing very well for you and doing pretty poorly for you." He reviews his firm's analytics every month, makes a video for the team, calls out wins, and flags what to watch. That monthly discipline is what keeps the firm's profitability from quietly eroding — and what surfaces the clients worth doubling down on.
Links Mentioned
- The Successful Bookkeeper
- PureBookkeeping
- Seguin Financial — find Andrew on LinkedIn
About the Guest
Andrew Seguin is the founder of Seguin Financial, a virtual bookkeeping firm based in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. With over eight years in the business, Andrew has grown his firm to serve clients across Ontario, with a focus on e-commerce and owner-operated businesses. He is known in the bookkeeping community for his data-driven approach to profitability and his commitment to building a firm culture that keeps great people around for the long haul.
About the host
Michael Palmer
Michael Palmer is the host of The Successful Bookkeeper podcast and co-founder of Pure Bookkeeping and The Successful Bookkeeper. He started this work because of his father — a brilliant electrical contractor who worked twice as hard as he should have had to, because nobody on the financial side was in his corner. That gap is what The Successful Bookkeeper exists to close. His view: bookkeepers are the most undervalued force in small business — and every bookkeeper who builds a real business changes two families: theirs, and their clients'.
Full transcript
[00:00] Andrew Seguin: So I like saying we can show you how to do it. We won't charge you for that because again, this is sort of the like supportive role of our engagement. We'll, we'll, we'll show you how to do it and you can do it yourself. Or if you'd like us to do it, we can have a conversation and figure out what our monthly increase would be to accommodate this.
[00:25] Ad Read: 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.
[00:56] Michael Palmer: Welcome back to The Successful Bookkeeper Podcast. I'm your host, Michael Palmer. It's the finale of my two-part conversation with returning guest Andrew Seguin. In this episode, Andrew shares his approach to hiring and retention, why he moved to a four-day workweek, and how partnerships, referrals, and great client service continue to fuel his firm's growth. Let's rejoin this chat right now. It's amazing how much these things cost that people don't often think about when they're hiring somebody. And I mean, as people make life decisions, dating, you know, getting married, all these different things, it's like hiring is no different. And often people make mistakes. There's the cost of the whole process to bring them on board, to train them, and then the cost of mistakes that could occur when they're here. You know, maybe they don't get along with people or they don't do good work or, you know, all sorts of issues. So there's so many variables, so many variables there. And you've, you've sort of figured out how to do it for your team. And there's some really key things there that I don't think others think about, which is you pay them well, you give them benefits, you create a culture, a certain culture there. I remember from our last podcast, you know, making sure people are healthy and doing healthy things and, you know, you're investing in these people. And so that's not everywhere. It's rare. No.
[02:23] Andrew Seguin: Yeah. We, we just moved to a 4-day work week actually. So, so I made a deal with my team. So we used to work Monday to Friday, 8 hours per day. So I said, let's do this. Let's go Monday to Thursday. Let's go 36 hours per week. So 9 hours per day and I won't cut your pay. So
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