We had an incredibly insightful conversation with Carrie and Sean Mulrooney about the finer points of remote working. This husband and wife team hired Poe Group Advisors to sell their own cloud-based firm last year. The transaction went so well, Darryl Boyd decided to bring them on to our Ontario team!
Carrie and Sean have some great insights to the process of owning, hiring, training, and working remotely in a virtual world that may be new to many. They were the owners of Gnarlybooks.ca and managed a team of 14 remotely throughout Canada. They operated a full-service cloud-based bookkeeping and accounting firm with the fundamental concept of ‘Helping More’. With this belief, all decisions, operations, and approaches were based on this core philosophy at GnarlyBooks. This certainly pertains to employee retention, motivation, and engagement as much as it pertained to both customer satisfaction and business growth.
Listen in on how they built a thriving, growing, cloud accounting firm with remote team members all over the country!
Notable moments:
01:03 – Carrie and Sean’s background and how they got into accounting
06:10 – Describe the process of going remote
09:00 – Hiring and training of remote teams
13:09 – Few things to look out for in applicants & monitoring performance
21:50 – How to maintain office culture
26:27 – A bit of advice for owners starting from scratch or converting
29:00 – Insights of how to help your clients be more successful
32:00 – What do see as the most serious threat & opportunities to the profession right now?
38:18 – Book recommendation: Implementing Value Pricing by Ron Baker
39:50 – Last bit of advice
About GnarlyBooks.ca: GnarlyBooks is a nationally award winning full cloud bookkeeping company, offering bookkeeping, accounting, payroll, and tax services to businesses across Canada. Are you ready to ride the wave with a progressive, efficient, and economical option for your bookkeeping?…check out GnarlyBooks on the web at GnarlyBooks.ca, Facebook at @GnarlyBooks, Twitter at @GnarlyBook, LinkedIn at GnarlyBooks.ca, and Instagram at GnarlyBooks.ca.
About Carrie Mulrooney: Former Owner and Founder – GnarlyBooks.ca Incorporated
Fresh into the industry back in 1999, Carrie began a bookkeeping sole prop. Quickly realizing the importance (and in some cases consequence) of bookkeeping and all its related facets, Carrie set out to help local businesses get and stay on track.
So many businesses needing help, and just one Carrie, resulted in the recruitment of employee #1. This began a cycle that led to the current iteration of the now national company known as GnarlyBooks.ca. GnarlyBooks is a full cloud company offering bookkeeping, accounting, payroll, tax, and other expanding service categories to customers across Canada. GnarlyBooks was a fully remote-based operation by the end of 2019. Carrie holds several designations including certifications through the Institute of Professional Bookkeepers of Canada (IPBC), and the Canadian Institute of Bookkeeping (CIB). Her company received numerous industry awards over the years including 2017 Bookkeeping Firm of the Year (IPBC). In 2018 Carrie was recognized as one of North America’s Top 50 Cloud Accountants, and awarded as a Top 10 Influencer of the Canadian Bookkeeping World.
Carrie LinkedIn, Email: cmulrooney@mulrooneyandassociates.com, Facebook: Carrie Mulrooney, Twitter: @cbmulrooney, Instagram: mulrooneycarrie
About Sean Mulrooney-ABCP:
Former Owner and Co-Founder – GnarlyBooks.ca
A career mix of entrepreneurial ventures and national corporate roles combine to provide Sean a broad perspective on operational opportunities. As industries shift to more economically and productively efficient models, Sean advocates for maintaining a strong leading-edge approach to how business is done. More than ever, technology provides a very viable foundation to make business operations future focused, however it’s the business owner’s willingness, or non-willingness, to implement the opportunity that actually leads to the outcome. While there may be a perception of risk, the real risk is in not moving at all, moving too late, or moving too slow…early adopters will lead their industry. Sean applies his background in Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery in his thought processes and approaches…creating strategic, resilient, and long-term maps to grow business. Sean’s out-of-the-box persona shows in all aspects of his life; an avid motorcycle builder and BBQ collector, demonstrate what he prefers to call ‘additional creativity outlets’. Sean’s mantra…Why be normal, normal just leads to more normal.
About Brannon Poe: Brannon is the founder of Poe Group Advisors and has been facilitating successful accounting practice transitions throughout the US and Canada since 2003. He is also the creator of Accounting Practice Academy. Brannon is the author of the Accounting Practice Insights Blog and hosts the Accountant’s Flight Plan” podcast with other top thought-leaders in the accounting profession. Brannon is an E&Y alumnus. He has worked with some of the most successful and seasoned CPAs in the industry and has been privy to the behind-the-scenes methods that these clients have used to build highly profitable practices along with capable and independent teams. Brannon has authored multiple books, including “Accountant’s Flight Plan – Best Practices for Today’s Firms” (published by both the AICPA and CPA Canada) and “On Your Own: How to Start Your Own CPA Firm,” Second Edition (published by the AICPA). Brannon is passionate about entrepreneurship and is the president-elect of EO Charleston (Entrepreneur’s Organization).
Selling your accounting firm? Book an exit strategy call today!
