9 Key Takeaways from Scaling New Heights Conference 2018

Scaling New Heights, a business conference, was held on June 17-29 in Atlanta, GA. The conference is an annual event that’s designed to help bookkeepers, accountants and business owners get practical training and knowledge on how to transform and grow their business with the help of technology.

Below are five key takeaways from the conference:

1. Be strategic

Before attending the conference, you might give some thought to a quick checklist which may help you better accomplish your goals. There should be a checklist of things you would be doing during the conference week and things needed after the conference.

There are many project management tools like Asana, JIRA and Zoho Projects. These tools add simplicity to task management, team collaboration, and priority alignment.

2. Networking

Scaling New Heights provided an excellent networking opportunity for accountants, CPAs, bookkeepers and small business owners. While it’s true that technology such as cloud brings people from different locations together, nothing beats a face-to-face meet up. If you decide to reach out to an attendee or a presenter, the other person is likely to be more interested when you have left a good impression while meeting them in person. Expanding your network is essential for your business growth.

3. Pay attention to details

If you are taking notes, keep them short and straightforward so that you can pay close attention to the speaker. Instead of writing down the exact words, consider writing what the speaker intends to say so that you understand their perspective. With the short notes and better understanding, you can quickly recall the thoughts later on.

4. Build strategic and business partnership

Use the ABC method for communication via emails: Craft your message with a call to action first and foremost. Add some space then number the background points. After giving some space, finish it with a close which includes the next steps and a professional signature.

5. Build trust

When working with a partner, you need to consider a few things and make sure that both share the common goals. As business partners, you should complement each other and need to be able to trust each other implicitly.

Divide your responsibilities. If one of the partners is an expert and is particularly experienced in bookkeeping, for example, it makes sense he takes responsibility for this aspect.

6. Marketing is the key

Clients need to see the value offered by your products or services and you as a business need to make them visualize the same. The entire marketing should be geared to achieve this goal. Client testimonials and real-life examples are a great way of achieving this.

7. Profitability is not viewed in isolation

Profitability is the key to success and should always be your critical driving force as a business. However, you should not always focus on net income. On the contrary, gross margin or profit is a better matrix to track and focus on, especially for businesses that are growing at a rapid pace.

8. Listen to customers

At times customers tend to not listen to you. It makes conveying your product or service USP’s a challenge. They are too engrossed in whatever they have to say. Reciprocating their feelings and empathizing with them is a great way to make them listen to you. All you need is some patience to listen to them and then use emotional intelligence to make them feel empowered.

9. Don’t underestimate your competitors

Confidence and self-belief are the pillars on which foundation of any business is laid. Be rational when estimating your strengths and comparing your competitors with you. Any comparison between your company and the competitors should be based on logic and reasoning and is an opportunity to improve and strengthen your business along with your products and services.