One of my biggest challenges at Palo Alto Software is figuring out which ideas to pursue and which ideas to put on the back burner. I have the luxury of working with a bunch of really smart people, so new ideas for things that we could do come up all the time.

I distinctly remember the moment I met Ingrid Edstrom, bookkeeper and founder of Polymath LLC. It was at the Scaling New Heights conference for accounting professionals in 2016, in the Bahamas. Everything was big: the resort, the ocean, the show itself.

It’s business planning not accounting. Your projections, although they look like accounting statements, are just projections. They are always going to be off one way or another, and their purpose isn’t guessing the future exactly right, but rather setting down expectations and connecting the links between spending and revenue.

There’s a phrase my athletic coach says all the time that has infiltrated every aspect of my life—well beyond the physical training I do regularly:

“Get comfortable with the uncomfortable.”

This modest sentence has become my rallying cry to myself.

Gamification can be highly motivating, for both internal employee performance and customer loyalty.

It’s the practice of structuring everyday tasks into a game-like format so as to increase the level of role-playing and point gaining—simulating a game being played—by incorporating goal-setting, integrating online tools, and offering real-time feedback.

A business is an investment. You want it to succeed. You pour everything you can into it.

But, while you’re ensuring your ROI makes the venture worthwhile, it’s easy to forget one fundamental truth: Employees aren’t an investment—they’re people.

If you could change one thing about your business today, what would it be?
Of all the things you sell, which ones are making you money and which ones aren’t? 
Are you on track to be able to give yourself a raise next year?

Do any of those questions get your attention? Would they get the attention of your small business owner clients?

You may think that leadership and introversion don’t go together. Why would anyone blame you? Just take a look at some of the most prominent and successful leaders across history.

Your company is running smoothly enough, but you know things could be better. Sometimes, a project gets hung up a few days too long, or meetings that once felt productive and useful now seem to drag on for hours. It can feel like wheels spinning in the mud, and it’s hard to get that traction back.

How can you fix these kinds of issues?

Being an accountant or a CPA also requires learning how to sell yourself and your firm’s services. Larger firms typically have someone responsible for marketing and business development, but smaller and one-person firms must know how to do it all if they want to compete and differentiate themselves.

Today, I want to introduce a new approach to business planning: Lean Planning.

Lean Planning replaces lengthy business plans with a planning process that focuses on increasing your chances of success in business.