Simplifying Finances and Business Growth with Tanya Akimenko

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to today’s episode of the Work at Home Rockstar podcast. We are talking to the CEO of Golden Apple Agency, and what she does is she helps business owners simplify their finances, turning complex accounting into a tool for better decision making and growth.

So I’m very excited to be rocking out today with Tanya Akimenko. Hey Tanya, you ready to rock?

Tanya Akimenko: I am, thanks for having me.

Tim Melanson: So tell me a story of success that we can be inspired by.

Tanya Akimenko: Oh, honestly, I have so many, but I’ll probably just start with my own. my business started in my home office and now I have two office locations, 15 employees, but majority of the time I still work from home.

Tim Melanson: And so when you first started your business, was it a part-time thing or did you just start it full-time from home?

Tanya Akimenko: Yeah, it was a very part-time thing. It was just during the tax season, So I do taxes and accounting. so it was just taxes. I think in the first year I probably had maybe 10 customers, that came to my house. I did have a home [00:01:00] office that they came to But yeah, it was just a part-time.

I had a full-time job and it all started just very few hours, a few a year.

Tim Melanson: So what was the catalyst to transitioning from the part-time to the full-time?

Tanya Akimenko: I just took a leap of faith. I was like, you know what? I need to be adding bookkeeping. as my client base kind of grew, I had a couple of people asking me for bookkeeping services And I was like, I need to just, take a leap of faith and jump all in instead of trying to do this part-time.

Tim Melanson: And

Tanya Akimenko: and it worked out amazingly.

Tim Melanson: So now, but on the other side of it, you know, there are some things that don’t go as planned and there are some mistakes that we might make along the journey. Can you share something like a big mistake that you made that we can recover from and learn

Tanya Akimenko: Yeah, I would say one of the mistakes I made is I tried to expand too fast. I hired too many employees and [00:02:00] didn’t have a chance to train them, very well. I had to, cut back. Unfortunately, I had to let some people go. It was very devastating. took out some loans to cover the initial payroll ’cause I thought I was gonna grow so fast, and then took a couple years to recover and part of it is still recovering, but it’s all good.

It was, very expensive, but very good. mistakes to learn.

Tim Melanson: So why did you think, like, so just to kind of like get into the mindset a little bit so that people don’t make the same mistake. What made you think that you could expand quicker than you, than you could?

Tanya Akimenko: Yeah. So basically I.

had the client base, like I had enough, prospects and leads that were coming in that wanted our services, but I didn’t have enough people to work, people to perform the jobs and things like that. The mistake is assuming people are like you, people have the same desire to learn like you people are, you [00:03:00] know, like, get it done.

I’ll meet the deadline. Like you, but no. so hiring the wrong people, even though they interviewed all great, like there was a lot of people that I didn’t hire, you know, people that I chose to hire. but you know, then I had people who you couldn’t make them. Even do some bookkeeping, you know, they just were not into it, even though they interviewed and things like that.

So I unfortunately even had to let some of my customers go ’cause I just didn’t have enough personnel.

Tim Melanson: People don’t like numbers, eh?

Tanya Akimenko: I think it’s the whole compliance part. Yeah, accounting.

you think it’s all about numbers, but it’s not, it’s literally all about compliance. It’s filling out a bunch of forms. God forbid you miss a checkbox in one box, you know, or put an extra one somewhere, you know, then yes. So it’s all about, I would say more about compliance than numbers, really.

Or even with bookkeeping, categorizing it correctly, you know? [00:04:00]

Tim Melanson: So a lot of it, a lot of the mistake wasn’t necessarily that you hired too many people. It might have been that you hired the wrong people, or you weren’t able to train them properly quickly enough. Right.

Tanya Akimenko: Yeah. for both of those. So train, quickly enough, and then Yeah, wrong people. But in all honesty, I don’t think it’s necessarily like wrong people. I just was not able to give them the one-on-one training attention that they needed.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah, and that’s just it. Like, it’s kinda like a, it’s a tough situation to be in when you know you are doing most of the work. And then all of a sudden you have to bring somebody in. What are you gonna do? Like, how are you gonna find the time to train them when you have your own work to do?

That’s the whole reason why you’re bringing them in the first place, right?

Tanya Akimenko: So what I started doing is, with the employees that I have, I started recording training videos, and then we have so many. Process training videos now, you know, and then if you get AI and stuff, [00:05:00] then especially if you record like on Zoom, it comes out with like a quick review of what happened, you know, so then you have a, a word for document for it as well.

So that has helped a lot. Like I’ve obviously hired more people afterwards and I had them watch videos and if they, you know, need to know how to do something, they’re able to not just wait for me creating that whole bottleneck effect. As the owner, they’re able to go and look at another video, how another client was handled, or you know, a process was handled.

Tim Melanson: No, I love that. It’s so cool. The coolest that we have nowadays, it’s so different, right? Like you can create, it’s almost like these playbooks write themselves now. Like you say, you just record a normal work call, right?

Tanya Akimenko: right.

Tim Melanson: no outta

Tanya Akimenko: training video.

Tim Melanson: So outta curiosity, ’cause this might be kind of common for a lot of industries, how do you, like you’re dealing with people’s financials, so how do you record a video with [00:06:00] a client and then share it with your other employees?

isn’t there some sort of like privacy issues going on there or?

Tanya Akimenko: I mean, whenever we do, training videos, it’s never like we have their socials open or their bank statements open or things like that. It’s those things, especially like working with software, those are things that are always Xed out and you only see the last few numbers. but it’s it only internal, so it.

doesn’t go anywhere else.

The training is just literally internal. I do have all my employees sign confidentiality information and things like that. So it’s not going anywhere. Not like I have employees overseas or you know, in accounting it’s very popular to outsource and have a bunch of people working from the Philippines or India.

So we don’t do that. So it’s all in-house, it’s all, and especially during the training period, they’re all working out of my office. I don’t, they’re not even working from home yet.

Tim Melanson: Okay, love it.

Tanya Akimenko: Yeah.

Tim Melanson: We’ve already mentioned a few like Zoom right. And, and, AI and stuff. But like, are there other tools that you [00:07:00] use in your business that are really useful for you?

Tanya Akimenko: Of course. So being in accounting, you have to do bookkeeping and the most popular one, easiest to use, and no one really stands close to it. Some tribe, but no one is really close, is the QuickBooks, of course. And specifically, I prefer QuickBooks online, not the desktop. so that’s a great tool.

Tim Melanson: if you can’t afford QuickBooks, ’cause it is expensive, Excel is always a great option and I actually prefer Google Sheets Nice. I actually have been using Excel forever and I just actually got QuickBooks this year, so, and the QuickBooks online. Yeah. So finally, but it, it was funny ’cause I mean, doing everything in, in Excel, it’s just name changes. Now I’m like, oh, that’s what that’s called. Right. So that’s cool. so then what about, I mean, you’ve been working from home for a long time.

Tell me about your home office, your jam room.

Tanya Akimenko: so [00:08:00] throughout the years, I obviously had lots of home office engine rooms. Right now I’m in my front room, so the very first thing that anybody comes in sees it. But I picked this area ’cause I have a beautiful view of the trees and stuff. And when you’re working from home and you don’t leave the house, I feel like that’s important that you have a view.

So that’s the reason I picked my spot in my house for the home office. But if we’re talking about taxes, your home office, and if you, especially if you wanted it to be tax deductible has to be a designated area, so it can’t usually be like your dining room table that you sometimes eat dinner at, but mostly use it with your laptop.

So it literally has to be a designated area.

Tim Melanson: Right on. So does it have to have a door?

Tanya Akimenko: No, it doesn’t always have to have a doorbell.

Tim Melanson: Okay. So it just has to be, you can’t have it be your living room slash home office. Right.

Tanya Akimenko: Right.

Tim Melanson: Cool.

Tanya Akimenko: can’t be using it.

Tim Melanson: [00:09:00] Is there anything else in your home office that you use or that you have?

Tanya Akimenko: Obviously a comfortable chair because I do work a lot. And then, you know, the kitchen’s closed for snacks, so That’s the best part. Working at home.

Tim Melanson: What about distractions? how do you stay focused?

Tanya Akimenko: So I use block scheduling and timers It’s easier to get distracted when you’re at home, but my daughter goes to school, so there’s nobody at home besides my cat. Sometimes my cat distracts me, but I try to stay focused with a block schedule. And especially like if you are like, oh, I gotta go do something, or I wanna go check the mail or switch the laundry, whatever.

I would use my block schedule. And then I do set, I forgot what it’s called, but it’s the 25. Block and then five minute break, 25 block, five minute break. So I use that.

Tim Melanson: Or Something

Tanya Akimenko: I forget what it’s called, but it [00:10:00] works great. ’cause then you’re like okay, I gotta get up for five minutes. I can go run, do something really quick and then get back into it.

Yeah. Okay.

Tim Melanson: what it is.

Tanya Akimenko: Forgot the name for it.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. and so how long have you been using that process?

Tanya Akimenko: I’ve been using the whole block schedule for a really, really long time, but the whole just 25 minute increments with a five minute break. I would say probably like less than a year. I’m really focusing on it now during tax season.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Tanya Akimenko: As we’re recording, it’s tax season

Tim Melanson: Yeah. And then your like legs hurt and stuff.

Tanya Akimenko: Yeah.

Tim Melanson: We have the same issues that working from home. I think that’s a really cool way to do it too. But the block scheduling, I’ve been using that for a long time too. Now. Is this something that you, like, read somewhere else was, or was it just like something that you kind of came up with yourself?

Tanya Akimenko: No, I did read about it. So I do enjoy reading a lot of, business books and more than one [00:11:00] book actually mentioned it. I think the last one. I read it was like the 31 to-do list for the entrepreneur. I forgot the name exactly. I can look it up. but it talked about that one as well, like it talked about specifically about the block scheduling and things like that.

And specifically about this, the 25 minute. So I actually used the 25 minute as my goal as my task to get complete in the 25 minutes.

Tim Melanson: Oh, that’s a good idea.

Tanya Akimenko: So, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the saying, if you give yourself a week to clean your house, it will take you a week. But if you give yourself an hour, it will take you an hour.

So that the whole 25 minutes, that’s my to complete a task. since you’re like telling your brain, Hey, you have 25 minutes to get this done, surprisingly, your brain figures out and it’s like, okay, let’s get this done.

Tim Melanson: Wow, that’s really cool and like it’s. the difference I think between the entrepreneur mindset versus the employee [00:12:00] mindset is the employee mindset is let’s just stretch this out to make sure it lasts as long as possible. But the entrepreneur mindset is the faster you can get it done and still maintain the same quality, the more money you make.

Right? Because now you can fit more things in a day.

Tanya Akimenko: Right. Unless you structure your employee payroll with bonuses and things like that, then they’ll wanna do that.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Tanya Akimenko: it is, yes.

Tim Melanson: So tell me more about that

Tanya Akimenko: each employee has a limited amount of clients that they can work with because I wanna make sure that they have the attention, but also I know how much one person can handle.

And if they’re not at their limit, they’re not gonna make as much money as they want to make. they see their goal and what they need to achieve, but that’s also because I know how fast you could work without sacrificing the quality. not all employees are there, of course, it takes time to build up the efficiency and, working fast and things.

But yeah, I’ve noticed that if you give [00:13:00] employees goals. Tie it in with their payroll. The customers that offer bonuses or like a structure or, or a percentage or anything else like that.

Their employees achieve more, their employees do more. There’s a lot less turnover.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Tanya Akimenko: I know, right?

Tim Melanson: And so with, you said that you’ve got like sort of a mix of people that work in an office and people that work at home. Right.

Tanya Akimenko: Yeah.

Are you worried about them working at home and losing productivity? No, because like I.

said, they all have goals. They all have a limit of customers that they deal with. And I don’t wanna focus. I always tell them, if I have to micromanage you or I don’t trust you, then you shouldn’t be working here. So, they have a workload that I know that needs to be completed.

And the other thing that I eliminated is the whole, Pretty much scheduled that they have to be available when customers are available, but they can either start early or work late or, you know, even sometimes [00:14:00] catch up on a Saturday if they wanna take off during the week. You know, so that helps out too, that they’re more in control of their schedule.

And as far as like productivity, I do obviously have security protocols I see on their computer where they’re going and things like that. I try not to check. I want to trust them and things like that. But if I needed to, I could. But I haven’t had an issue with them not getting stuff done.

we constantly have deadlines. We constantly have things that need to get done. And I haven’t had an issue with any of my employees that didn’t meet their deadlines.

Tim Melanson: That’s awesome. Well, it sounds to me like you’ve got the right kind of like infrastructure in place to help them. You know, be happy and flexible and just get the work done. Like, I think that’s what a lot of employers do wrong, is that they focus more on, you know, maybe the time that they’re at the office rather than the amount of work that they get done.

and like you say, that discourages them from working fast. You know, if all I care about [00:15:00] is whether you get your work done and it’s that the quality that we’re looking at, then. That encourages them to just get better at their job.

That’s true. That’s

Tanya Akimenko: I tell them all, I’m like, I wanna us all to work just 30 hours a week

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

in all reality That’s brilliant. Cool. So let’s talk a little about keeping the hat full, the cash flow, and I mean, probably an accountant is a good person to talk about this, right? but have you got any, like, well, let’s talk about you. Like how do you make sure there’s more money coming in than going out?

Tanya Akimenko: Obviously I do budgets and forecasting. I review my finances on a regular basis, which, with a lot of people, and especially like working with a lot of small business owners. for some reason it’s like they’re always like almost scared to look at their finances, especially when they’re starting out.

’cause they’re like, I know I’m spending more than I’m bringing in. I’m just investing now and things like that. But I really encourage to start building good [00:16:00] financial habits, like, forecasting. how much do I think I am going to bring in? how much do I need to be bring in to, you know, make it, to make sure that my out.

money out is covered. So if you use like, set up, habits, like weekly habits to review all those, you’d be good because then if you see that you are not gonna make it next week, guess what? You’re gonna hustle to make it, to make sure. But if you don’t have those habits and you don’t sit down and you don’t review, then you won’t know.

And then all of a sudden your bank account is in the negative and you’re like, what? I thought I had money. This happened to customers. I’m literally talking about real stories that happened to my customers.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. I mean, I hear it all the time too, and like, I like accounting. I should be an accountant, but I just, check my finances sometimes more than one time a day. And I’m just constantly looking at it. And I don’t find it scary at all. But I hear a lot of people that they just don’t even look at it at all,

I’m like, well, how do you know where [00:17:00] you are if you don’t look at it regularly?

Tanya Akimenko: Yeah, they’re just guessing.

Tim Melanson: Would it be okay for them to hire somebody to look at that for them and just give them a heads up when something’s happening?

Or what are some other options or are there any.

Tanya Akimenko: Yeah, so I would actually say it depends. Like if they’re making enough money and they need somebody to be looking at that, then a hundred percent. But a lot, a lot of times when you’re like starting out or it’s like your part-time job or like it’s, you know, side gig or whatever, you don’t have the finances to hire someone.

In that situation, I always say know yourself, like learn yourself first. Like are you a morning person? Are you an evening person? Like, what triggers you, what makes you anxious that you don’t wanna look at it? And then start small. But I could honestly say, and I’ve been doing this for like 20 years.

There is nobody that you’re gonna hire that’s gonna care more than the business owner themselves. And even if you hire someone, you still need to be aware of it. You still need to [00:18:00] know it. and then I would say if you have such anxiety, hire someone to train you to understand it. The reason you have anxiety anxieties ’cause you don’t understand.

Tim Melanson: yes, I agree. And you do hear stories of people that actually get taken advantage of by, their financial people. ’cause if you have no idea, they could be skimming some stuff outta there. Right.

Tanya Akimenko: Yeah, I literally just had this happen to one of my customers. He hired an account controller? No, an accounting person, a controller. And that controller tried to get all his invoices money in, sent to his other bank, like he was like changing the bank. Yeah, It’s such a huge mess that I had to help and deal with.

So yes, the business owner, even if you hire someone. You still need to be in control. Like you still need to know what’s going on.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I think probably. In most businesses if it’s a [00:19:00] solid idea, right? If it’s a good business idea, then you are going to be making money like it is gonna be profitable. So it’s not that scary. it’s more or less maybe just some anxiety about.

being confused about how things are or confused about taxes or whatever it is and all that stuff. you can learn or you can at least have somebody that can be on speed dial, you know that you pay them whatever, just per call to help you with that stuff. But I think probably a lot of the anxiety might be that people are actually worried that maybe their idea is not a good idea and maybe their business.

Is not, you know, ’cause people really do become very personal about their business. It’s their baby, right? And so if they’re worried that maybe, maybe they’re just, it’s just not the right business idea. There’s just not enough money to be made. Maybe that might be why they don’t want to even look at it.

Tanya Akimenko: Oh, I [00:20:00] was gonna say, but then again, you see all these items that sell and you’re like, this is stupid. How did, how did this sell? So I heard from a business coach that if your business is not making money, then you have a marketing problem.

Tim Melanson: Absolutely. I agree. Which is, I think the faster you figure that out, right. The better, right? Because I mean, I think a lot of times it’s probably even more or less that they’re not charging enough for what they do.

Tanya Akimenko: That’s true too, but if you don’t do.

your accounting and bookkeeping, you don’t know if you’re charging enough.

Tim Melanson: Yep, absolutely. I think that,

Tanya Akimenko: You know, the whole product, like the, the whole Stanley Cups, you know, they were gonna discontinue them ’cause they weren’t selling. And then the woman said, why don’t we pay them PE pistol color colors?

And then they went crazy, like they can’t keep them off the shelf. See? So a lot of times it’s a marketing issue.

Tim Melanson: Yep. It’s a marketing issue. It just needs to be reinvented, something like that. [00:21:00] but yeah, like you say, if you Don’t look at those numbers, then eventually you get into so much trouble that you just can’t revive it anymore.

Tanya Akimenko: Right?

Tim Melanson: And now there are plenty of places you can go to get that confidence building information, right?

Tanya Akimenko: Yeah, that’s true. I would say like if you are ever hiring someone, the issue with accountants is like we’re all pretty much introverts. A few of us are extroverts. You know, we all focus more on compliance than talking to people and stuff. But in reality, like. With mine, and I learned this from a very, very early on, like when I did a tax return and I used my accounting jargon to explain, to tell her stuff.

this one business owner looks at me and she’s like, I didn’t understand a word. You said, tell me, tell me words. I understand, you know? And so I was like, oh, okay. So I know these words, but they don’t know these words. And so like literally when an employee comes on board, like we train them to. [00:22:00] Of course we have to know the accounting, you know, language, but we literally train them to talk in everyday language and specifically like my bookkeepers and accountants, they have like specific industries and then learn their, that industry lingo, you know, to communicate to them so the customers actually understand.

so. if you’re hiring an accountant and things like that. And then don’t be afraid to speak up. Explain it to me. ’cause there is a lot of words that, you know, we use that most people don’t know ’cause they didn’t study them.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. You know what? That’s applicable advice to just about any business too. ’cause I think that whatever your you know, thing is, you’re gonna know it better and you’re gonna know all those proper terms better than the average customer of yours is gonna know them. And so if you’re speaking to them in your language, the customer doesn’t care about any of that stuff.

All they want to know is how you’re gonna solve their problem. So yeah, I mean that’s really applicable advice to anybody I think.

Tanya Akimenko: Yeah, [00:23:00] that’s true.

Tim Melanson: That’s awesome. So tell me what’s exciting in your business right now.

Tanya Akimenko: Well, right now.

people thinking the IRS is gonna get eliminated,

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Tanya Akimenko: so that’s exciting, I guess you could say. But in reality, I doubt that the IRS will be eliminated. I think only businesses should have tax taxes.

Tim Melanson: I agree.

Tanya Akimenko: if I’m being honest, but I doubt that the whole IRS will be eliminated. So we have lots of customers, there’s so much misinformation that are like, I wanna put an extension because the IRS is gonna be abolished by October. I’m like, doubtful, but okay. If you want that extension, let’s get you an extension.

So that’s really exciting. The conversations that I heard on TikTok, I heard on Instagram, IRS is getting abolished.

Tim Melanson: Oh, imagine, yeah, but that’s, I think, so what you’re doing, you’re basically just giving people extensions. Do they have to pay for that? [00:24:00]

Tanya Akimenko: For the extension. Yeah.

We, we charge a fee to file their extension, but more of a deposit, against the tax preparation. Yeah. They’ll get it back when. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: I’m in Canada, so things are different up here, but,

Tanya Akimenko: You still have taxes and stuff?

Tim Melanson: we do still have taxes. Yep. but I mean, I think that’s the same everywhere that we know everything’s up in the air. It’s just so crazy and there is a lot of misinformation that could get you into some trouble.

I think that it’s, you know, just like with anything, it’s. Probably best to not make any crazy radical decisions when everything’s up in the air. If those things come into play, great. If they don’t, then you might end up, you know, with a bunch of stuff you don’t need anymore

Mm-hmm. so now what, is there anything that you offer, like how do people get to know whether you are [00:25:00] someone they wanna work with or not?

Tanya Akimenko: Because I’m the business owner and because it’s my agency, I do meet every single new potential customer first. And I assign and I figure out if we’re a good match and based on the industry, I decide who would be best for them to work with inside my agency, like the bookkeepers and the accounts.

’cause obviously as the business owner, you can’t work with everyone, you know. But, Yeah.

people can reach us through our website. I tried starting a YouTube channel years ago, but it’s so time consuming. I can’t, I give my hat off to people like, you, I try to podcast too.

It’s so time consuming. I don’t know how you guys do It

Tim Melanson: It is.

Tanya Akimenko: That is true. people can just, reach out to us on our website. we have a whole process, a new client relationship manager talks to them first and then tells them a little bit about us.

if they’re still interested, the next step [00:26:00] would be to meet with me. And then decide if we’re a good match. I would never want somebody to sign up just because I needed a client. You know, if that’s not like the industry I specialize or if that’s something that I know that I won’t be able to provide.

Excellent customer service and things like that. So, yeah. but just from our website, golden Apple agency inc.com.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. So if someone’s looking for an accountant, then makes sense to look for someone who specializes in their industry. Is that what you’re saying?

Tanya Akimenko: Yeah, it would make sense.

Tim Melanson: Okay. Yeah, that makes sense because I know that when I was setting up my own QuickBooks, there was a lot of things that were sort of like, not standard.

It was just when I was looking at all the predefined categories, I’m like, well, I don’t fit in any of these categories. I had to go and do some research to figure all that stuff out. So that does make sense that if you have a specific industry, they would know how to handle certain parts of your industry.

Right.[00:27:00]

Tanya Akimenko: Yeah. And then each industry is a little bit different, you know, and have their own rules and things like that. But also, an accountant learns your lingo, you know, like the words you use, the words in your business that maybe other people don’t know. So it becomes much easier to communicate as well.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Cool. And it’s not that an accountant might not be able to figure all that stuff out, but it just would save so much time if they already knew.

Tanya Akimenko: Right.

Tim Melanson: And it’s better for both people. It’s better for you because you know what you’re doing. It, speeds up the time that it takes for you to get back to a client.

And it also saves time for me because now you can communicate with me easier. I can just send off a quick email and you don’t have to keep coming back and we ask one more questions. Right.

Right. That’s awesome.

Tanya Akimenko: Golden Apple agency

Tim Melanson: Awesome. thank you so much for rocking out with me today, Tanya. This has been a lot of fun.

Tanya Akimenko: Thank you so much for having me.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. And to the listeners, make sure you subscribe, rate, comment. We’ll see you next time on the Work at Home Rockstar Podcast and you can go to [00:28:00] workathomerockstar.com for more information.