EP45: Ingrid Edstrom - How To Find Your Profitable Bookkeeping Client Niche

Who do you want to work with?

If you answered, “EVERYONE.”

That could likely cost you.

Many bookkeepers don't have a clear niche of clients they focus on and, as a result, they likely accept any new customers that walk through the door.

Unfortunately, that thinking can attract potentially bad clients who are not a fit.

By not taking the time to identify what type of client would be ideal from a financial and personality standpoint for you, accepting “EVERYONE” can lead to increased headaches, stress and payment issues.

It doesn't have to be this way.

Our guest, Ingrid Edstrom pointed out that in 2015, her bookkeeping company, Polymath, had 96 clients, but after finding a profitable niche, it now serves only 30, but it makes double the money.

Once you figure out what core group of customers work best, it can be an absolute game-changer in your bookkeeping business.

During this fun and inspiring interview, you'll learn...

  • Why you should focus on an industry niche that you want to work with and that can pay you well

  • What questions to ask yourself to determine your ideal niche clients

  • To not be afraid to refer potential clients who aren't a fit to other bookkeepers

To learn more about Ingrid, visit here

To further explore the Ask A Bookkeeper video series, check out this website.


Michael Palmer: 01:00 Welcome back to The Successful Bookkeeper podcast. I'm your host, Michael Palmer, and today's show is going to be a fun one. Our guest is Ingrid Edstrom, who is the CEO of Polymath, which is a bookkeeping business based in Oregon and I will say award-winning for that matter. Polymath's vision is to make the world a better place built on a foundation of thriving small businesses. And Its tagline is empowering passion through profits and puppets. Welcome to the show, Ingrid. 

Ingrid Edstrom: 01:33 Thanks so much for having me, Michael. This is a lot of fun. 

MP: 01:36 Yeah, absolutely. And I mean the last bit there, profits and puppets, I'm sure our listener right now is wondering, okay, what did I hear that correctly? Empowering Passion through profits and puppets. So maybe let's start off there, tell us a little bit about yourself and how bookkeeping and puppets got to be a part of your tagline. 

IE: 01:56 Sure. So the tagline for Polymath is actually just empowering your passion, the profits and puppets is kind of something I have on my profile at LinkedIn cause we've got a couple of different things going on. We've got our bookkeeping practice at polymath and then we also have our online show, which is called ASCA bookkeeper. And we are basically working to create for small businesses what Bill Nye does for science. Taking those big somewhat intimidating questions and making them more approachable, more palatable and digestible and a lot more fun. And the main way that we do that is with the puppet show. We're essentially creating sesame street for business owners. And this show really is bridging the gap between small business owners and accounting professionals. We have a little bit of problem going on in the small business world and that quite frankly, Michael, a lot of our clients are terrified of us. 

IE: 02:55 Our target market is not a huge fan of accounting because it's not their forte. They don't want to have to learn about it and we speak a totally different language than they do. So we have this issue in a small business where the smallest business owners don't have a business degree, much less a marketing degree or an accounting degree, and they don't really quite know how to tackle some of these big ideas. And they're a little bit afraid to go and ask for help because it's like going to the dentist when you haven't brushed your teeth and oh a couple of years and you know you've got cavities and you think you're going to get yelled at and you're going to get drilled and it's going to hurt and it's going to be expensive. That's how a lot of small business owners see they're accounting professionals and we're working to start shifting that and making it so that we're speaking the same language. 

IE: 03:53 We can make the accounting profession as a whole and accounting professionals more approachable and keep small business owners how to do their home care in business, brushing your teeth, flossing, make that easier and have shows online that show how them, how to do that so that they're not afraid to read it and ask for help and they know how to ask the right questions.

MP: 04:15 Very cool. And how has it been going?

IE: 04:25 It's been going pretty well. We recently did a Kickstarter campaign to get the first handful of episodes of our podcast off the ground. The ASCA bookkeeper's show has three main parts. There's our youtube channel, which we've been doing for several years, and that that started as kind of a labor of love, just a silly fun thing that we were doing for our clients. And then when we got third place in 2015 from the future of contest into it, kind of put a big spotlight on it. 

IE: 04:46 And I said, oh goodness, my colleagues are watching my puppet show. This is kind of embarrassing. I need to up my game. So that's when we started focusing on getting better puppets, higher quality guest stars, those sorts of things, and really brought the Kickstarter together to turn it all around. And now we're in, we just finished the Kickstarter last month and we are in post-production. Um, the videos that we shot. We've got some great guest stars that we're looking forward to getting out on our brand new podcast. We're going to do a video podcast. Um, a couple of you might've heard of Sekou Andrews, who's one of the keynote speakers at QuickBooks connect each year. Um, his fantastic poetic voice is so motivating and inspiring. And I'm looking forward to introducing him to [inaudible] wider business audience with our show. And also Ivan Meisner, who is the founder of BNI. I believe he's been on your show before also Michael. So getting to talk about network marketing and the, some of those, some of those great messages that we can get out to an audience of small business owners that aren't coming home from a hard day at work and reading a corporate White Paper, there's surfing through youtube and saying, oh dear God, please send me a sign. 

IE: 06:06 So we're going to give them something that is much more approachable. 

MP: 06:10 It's very cool. And so you're building an audience of small business owners helping, uh, helping to really educate them and bring these concepts of accounting and bookkeeping a little bit more clearly and, and tangible for that audience, which I think is really cool. And so can you share a little bit about your business side of things. How did you become the owner of Polymath and share with the listener a little bit of your history? 

IE: 06:38 Sure. I started Polymath in 2008 I had been doing some light bookkeeping for a little local company. It was one of those situations where I was doing my job and everyone else's job and not getting the recognition or the pay for it. And one of the jobs that I was doing with the bookkeeper's job, um, she really didn't know anything about bookkeeping. And I managed to figure it out. I apparently have one of those brains that like to eat debits and credits for breakfast. And after several years of working with this company, I realized that it was really kind of a toxic work situation that wasn't going to be healthy. And I went to the employer and said, hey, you know, you've got a team here who are actively drilling holes in the hall of this boat and I'm spending more time bailing water than I am doing my own job and I'm not enjoying it anymore. I need you to fix it. I've got to go do something else. And he said you know how much I hate confrontation? 

IE: 07:36 So I jumped ship and built my own boat. And the main thing that I focused on was bookkeeping. And, um, the first thing I did was becoming a certified QuickBooks pro advisor. I took the desktop certification exam. Quickbooks online was still very new at that point, but we got into QuickBooks online pretty quickly also and being brand new in the world and, you know, not hearing how everything was supposed to be done, we really got into the tech. And that was, that was kind of what differentiated us from a lot of the other bookkeeping professionals at the time. And then the other main thing that really started setting us apart was that I don't believe in competition. That's, um, one of the main reasons why we started the ASCA bookkeeper's show is because I really think that there are enough clients out there for all of us. 

IE: 08:24 And, um, ask a bookkeeper isn't there to just bring clients into Polymath. We actually have a pretty full book at polymath and we're very niche-specific at this point. So if we're going to make the world a better place, building a foundation of thriving small businesses, that's not something we can do all by ourselves. We need other accounting professionals to partner with to make that come true. And we started a local organization before we knew about the Woodard network and what are the groups called? The southern Oregon bookkeepers association working to bring together local bookkeepers and create a rising tide that raises all ships and that kind of set us apart a little bit and it's just been kind of grew from there. If hired our first employee in 2012 and open an office and I'm kind of giving you the highlight reel that doesn't go into all of the work that all of that tapes, but here we are almost nine years later and the things that one pretty well, Vanessa, there it is my wonderful business partner and she started with us as an employee a few years ago, but January of 2016 last year we became an employee on company and we've gotten intention so that every new person who joins our team from this point forward, the intention is to have them be inequity owner in the company because the most effective way I've found to have someone take ownership in their work is literally to make it so that they see that, you know, this isn't about feeling somebody else's dreams. 

IE: 09:57 We need to build the dreams together. And I feel like that's what we can do as accounting professionals with some of the intentions that we're setting and what we're doing with Asco bookkeeper. Okay. One of the main intentions for this show is to have other accounting professionals to join us. On the show and to talk about their expertise because at this point the bookkeeping profession is so diverse. There are so many different niche specialties and softwares that we can focus on. There's no way for anyone person to be an expert in all of that and ask the bookkeeper's called, ask a bookkeeper, not ask the bookkeeper. It's not just a way to bring people into our book of business. We created it as a platform for bookkeeping for other professionals, accountants and other people who serve small business owners to be heard and pass those lessons along. And real education is the best marketing we can do by offering education to the world and you know, three or 10 minutes snippets for free. We are going to set us up as being the experts that people need and they will come to us asking for more and that way we don't have to sell ourselves because if we have to convince somebody we've already locked. It's not about convincing people to buy our services, it's about it chanting them.

MP: 11:1 Absolutely 

MP: 11:30 such a beautiful way to do it. Educating someone leaves such a great mark for the, for the industry. And I love what you've been saying about building up the, your own industry of bookkeepers and that rising tide raises all boats very much. What we believe here as well as is to empower small businesses around their finances is what is needed, is education and for bookkeepers. This podcast really is about bringing information and inspiration and a community such that that tide can be rising all the time. So it's so great to have you on the show from that perspective. Now from a business perspective, you said a few things I've been really interesting that I want to just jump back to. Number one is you have a very narrow niche or specialty, which is an s in the tech hub. And I think that's very powerful from a business endpoint and, and many don't do that. And I'd like to hear just how you got into that and what you've noticed about working in a narrow market like that. 

IE: 12:35 Well, it started with the tech, but I don't consider tech and niche. So, um, we got into QuickBooks online pretty early, which was really beneficial for us because when it came to our area where we were focusing at first, no one else was doing QuickBooks online and it was like pulling teeth to get any of the other accounting professionals to even consider working with it. So we were a little early to the party on that one. Um, but it ended up serving as very well in the long run. When I say niche, I'm referring more to an industry niche. And I think that it's really important that accounting professionals start focusing on industry. And the reason for that is because when we focus on an area specialty, it makes it so that we can really pinpoint who are our favorite clients, who are those ideal relationships that we really want to work with all the time. 

MP: 13:36 Totally agree. 

IE: 13:38 And by really focusing on those relationships, we can ensure that we're offering the best service to our clients. And at the same time, we don't have to do as much continuing education. Okay. So there's a lot of industries that really require a bit more specialty knowledge. And their industries that we've touched on in the past with polymath, but then as we were looking in saying, you know what? We're really spinning our wheels doing continuing education all the time and it limits how much time and energy we can focus on actually serving our clients if we're going to serve medical professionals and contractors and nonprofits. And Low and behold, here we are in southern Oregon, the cannabis industry, which is currently undergoing a ton of legislative changes. It's such a new player in the market. There is a lot of continued education that goes into serving that industry. 

IE: 14:31 There's no way any accounting professional conserve all of them effectively. So what we've done is we've really kind of narrowed it down and focused in on one of our absolute favorite niches, which is cultural and adventure tour companies. So we have, it's not an exclusivity. When you think about niching, you don't necessarily have to serve that niche exclusively. We do have clients in other areas. What a niche is, is a marketing focus. So by directing our marketing to some of our absolute favorite clients, we're more likely to get clients that have the same needs as those clients. But at the same time, the other niches that have special needs that require other continuing education such as the nonprofits and the contractors, we don't take them on anymore. We direct those clients to other accounting professionals who do specialize in those niches. And that makes it so that everyone is getting their favorite clients. Because why would anyone want to work with a client that isn't going to be their favorite clients? 

MP: 15:38 Absolutely. And I think what's powerful about it is as you've mentioned, you, you, you get to be an expert in that area and put all of your focus and time into that area. And that serves not only your bottom line, your effectiveness, your efficiency, but you also serve the client because you bring knowledge that others in the industry may not bring because of those folks, which I think is, is, is great. And some people get hung up on the fact and you know, if you pick one year, you can't do anything else. And that's, I, I dispel that myth. It's really just an area of focus. And so I think that's an opportunity for, uh, a lot of our listeners to, to consider who do they like to work with and where have they made the biggest impact and where has it been the most lucrative or profitable for their business. And maybe start to think about focusing in on, on that narrow area or narrower area like you've done yourself, which I think is, is, is great. 

IE: 16:43 Well, and one of the other really big benefits to it, you know, aside from just the satisfaction of getting to work with the most to filling client relationships really is the bottom line. I got to tell you, Michael, 2015, October 2015, Polymath had 96 clients, 96. Today we have 30 and we are making twice as much money. 

MP: 17:08 Wow. That's shocking numbers. 

IE: 17:12 So by focusing in on a smaller niche, switching to value pricing, but we've eliminated our ar, which is really, really nice. We used to spend two full days a month doing our own invoicing, piecing things out by day of we spent this much time doing this thing and it just invited our clients to question our integrity question every little line on the invoice. Did that really take that long? It's like Ron Baker said they don't want to hear about the labor pains, they want to see the baby. Now we're focusing on the value that we offer to the clients on the results, on the outcomes. And we're focusing in an area in which we're the expert and there's no question about as being the expert. And if a client wants to question that, if they want to come in and say, well yeah, but time and does it really need to be this hard? It's like you are welcome to go and find somebody who will charge you by the hour to, you know, do some of these things and we'll see you when you learn your lesson or not because your business will fail. But in the end, those are the best-fit clients for us. And we're at a point where we don't have to take those relationships on and have to prove ourselves. We take on the relationships with a client who is looking for quality. 

MP: 18:32 Beautiful. So you've got a really interesting journey that you've gone on with your business. What would you say as an owner, what would you say some of the key learnings have been for you? 

IE: 18:49 The key learnings, you know, I would say that the number one thing for me is to go to the industry conferences. All of this shifted for us when I attended scaling new heights in 2015 so it's a little bit of a whirlwind to think about that. In the last couple of years I've been speaking at scaling new heights and there have been awards with the firm of the future contest, the top 40 under 40 most powerful women in accounting. I'm one of the, this year I was the top up and comer pro advisor from insightful accountant newsletter, but September, October 2014 I was too chicken to go to quickbooks connect. Okay. I thought about an accounting conference and I thought that I was going to encounter a bunch of older, well dressed in their fancy suits, professional accountants that we're going to look at this red headed bookkeeping girl and say, what on earth is she doing here? 

IE: 19:47 That is what I had, you know, tricked out in my brain and when I convinced myself to go to scaling new heights in 2015 actually it was Katie Peterson who at that time had her own practice up in Portland, but now she works for intuit. She convinced me to come to scaling new heights and went to New Orleans and checked it out and it was nothing like I thought it was going to be. It was 1500 kindred spirits who were all helping each other and building each other up and the continue education was amazing and it blew my mind, shifted everything. I got back from scaling new heights in 2015 and I turned my practice upside down and a few months later we got third place in the form of the future contest. It can really happen that fast. It was a lot of work, but it can, and that's what I would love to encourage other accounting professionals to embrace change. 

IE: 20:46 Give it a try and see what we're missing. And you don't have to know everything. You don't have to be a specialist or an expert in everything but reaching out to your colleagues. It's kind of interesting. The um, the firm of the future idea from the book from or the future. There are the three main pillars that they talk about to become a firm of the future in the firm of the future contest. Being in the cloud, using value pricing and embracing technology. But I really think that there is another pillar that is missing there and that is collaboration. Collaboration with our colleagues in the profession, focusing on raising each other up, recognizing that there's no such thing as competition and really educating each other, recognizing that we are in this together and that that is the best way that we can all succeed is by recognizing that there is no such thing as a zero-sum game. If we want a bigger slice of the pie, then we don't have to fight for it and try to say, oh well that's my slice there and I want more pie. We did together, we make some pie. 

IE: 22:06 And it's a lot more fun that way. 

MP: 22:08 It really is. And the opportunity in the marketplace is just so open and ready for people like yourself, uh, business owners that need help. They need help though the economy is doing well in the United States and Canada and Australia around the world. I mean there are hotspots of problems for sure, but these businesses are growing and they need your help in order to make a business grow, make those profits remain in their business instead of in somebody else's. And so I really like what you're saying and we talk a lot on this podcast about industry events associations and how powerful they are. And you're a perfect example of where you went to an event and industry event and it had changed the course of your business and very dramatically in some amazing results that you've, that you've been able to produce, which I think has a lot to do with your successes. Obviously, your mindset is that you are a person completely committed to being successful in your business and as well committed to helping others be successful and you know, it comes across, you know, loud and clear that it's not just all about you and money. It's about making a difference about your customer and that produced great results for you. 

IE: 23:29 Yeah, I think the main thing is each of us needs to ask ourselves, what do I want to spend my time doing? If money were no object, money and time if I could do anything that I want, what would that be? Okay. If I could do anything that I want, you know, unlimited time and money. My favorite conversation to have with somebody is about making dreams come true about how to build something that is bigger than ourselves. I love talking business with our clients because these entrepreneurs started businesses because they have dreams because they had a spark of I can do something that's going to make a difference. And those are the businesses that we really focused on working with. If somebody comes to us and says, Oh, you know, I think that if I, you know, sell this, do Hickey at these margins and you know, they'll make a pretty good return and no, I don't really care about it, we're not going to take them on as a client because that's not our favorite client. Now maybe that's somebody else's favorite clients and wonderful, they're welcome to them. We all have different favorites, but asking ourselves, what is it that I truly love, if I could eat the look that people get on their faces when all of this stress melts away and then they feel empowered and inspired to go out and change the world. If I could eat that look on their face, I wouldn't have to make money. 

IE: 24:56 I love it. I love it so much. I, you know, it's, it's, I can't even help myself sometimes. And that's the main reason why with the accounting practice, but also the puppet show. People ask, you know, oh, well the puppet show, we're not monetizing it yet. I mean, it's to the point where we're working on getting in that direction. It does need to be sustainable. It needs to be able to support itself, but it's a labor of love for the last several years. But at the same time, I don't feel like I could just stop doing it because it's a lot of fun, you know, in the same way, we're, you know, Michael, do you think you could just stop podcasting? I'm betting that you probably like this a lot. 

MP: 25:38 Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's, it, I think what the difference though is that whatever it is that you do, it goes back to your purpose and, and core beliefs and values. And, and for us in our business, uh, our, our, our mission is to transform the bookkeeping industry by helping great bookkeepers like you grow their business. And we do that through podcasts like this through our Facebook group, through our products, our services, all of these things. But it all ties in some we do for absolutely no, no revenue aim except for education like yourself education. Um, but if we just did it for, if our mission was just to make money, I mean there's a million ways to make money with this, be it. No, this is the one that, uh, that we found that our, you know, our organization is banded around and you know, we've done a really good job of it, but it, it, we are all aligned around that. 

MP: 26:37 So every time we're doing something, it's through passion, it's through wanting to make that difference. And we just keep asking ourselves, is this really helping transform the bookkeeping industry? And that's the primary question we have to ask when we're doing anything. So, you know, it's a great aside from that one of the important things is why are you doing what you're doing? Make sure that super clear because all sorts of wonderful things can happen when you get really clear about that. Like you guys, it's really clear that you're super clear about what you're up to and why you're doing it. And yeah, sometimes things work. Sometimes they don't. Whether you have your puppet show ever produce a profit or not, it's still making a difference. So it's already reached that first aim. Now it's just the game really to figure out how can you make that pay for itself or, and even more. 

IE: 27:28 Yeah. You know, and it's so funny, Michael, hearing your vision. Oh, really? Empowering bookkeepers to help small businesses and transforming. I think about that. I also think about, um, the Woodard vision statements, transforming small business through small business advisors and our vision statement to make the world a better place built on a foundation of small businesses. Those three visions are very similar and really build on each other. And someone with a lack mentality, a poverty mindset might look at that and say, oh, competition, their vision is too much like ours. They're going to steal our clients. Or, or you know, or do me fighting over the audience or something like that. Now we look at each other and say, oh my gosh, we have similar interests. How can we pray together and how can we help each other? How can we build each other up? 

IE: 28:25 There's no competition here and you know, I teach at Woodard's conferences and I'm pretty sure that if Joe, we're here on this call right now, he'd be like, yes, absolutely. Thank you. Because that's exactly what we're doing is transforming small businesses to small business advisors. By doing that together we have a greater, more profound effect on the world. We're able to reach more people because some of them might hear things differently from each of us. My audience might hear a message that I've been trying to speak to them in my words differently from you and it might penetrate more deeply and to get through to them in a way that I couldn't and it just makes all of us more effective and more successful. It makes it so that we can help more people and that's what it's all about. 

MP: 29:15 Yeah, absolutely. 

MP: 29:24 I think what's interesting is that every business has elements that are their crown jewel if you will. The thing that makes them so different from the others. So you could have two businesses side by side, both great businesses, both serving identical markets, but there's a subtle difference and there's going to be a choice of the consumer or the person buying that that's going to say, you know, I want that jewel over here. Rarely do you see them have exactly identical offerings that are the same? I mean, you look at Google and Facebook, they are two predominantly, they own digital marketing on the planet. There's, they're almost a hundred percent of all digital marketing span is between those two companies and yet they're completely different. The way they go about it, the way they're doing it, it's completely different. Yet they're going after those same dollars, yet they're, they're applying that a different methodology now I imagine they both want to swallow up each other and, and win. 

MP: 30:22 However, they're following their vision to the tee and growing their businesses just like Woodard, yourself, ourselves. And I mean to bring it right back to niche, right? If, if, if we were helping all businesses transform their business by helping businesses, you know, it would be very flat, very, it would have no impact because how can we help every single business on the planet? We have no expertise in every single business. And so the more narrow it gets for us, it's been beautiful because it's very narrow. The people that we serve, people like yourself, you know, we serve them all over the planet. And the shocking thing is they're all very much the same, the same, very similar thinking characteristics, uh, behaviors, all of that. So we get to learn that and understand what it is that, that, that you need and we're able to do a better job of it. 

IE: 31:18 So, uh, I think that's one of the joys of being in a narrow market is that, yeah, there are people like yourself, but you're serving a completely different thing. But we're all trying to get to the same place. And at the end of the day, it is only about, for me, it always has always only been about helping the small business owner, the entrepreneur, because the entrepreneur, they are the, our future, our future of our, of our communities, a future of our countries. Because if they're not thriving, if they're not healthy, we're not going to be in big trouble because they're the ones that create the jobs. They're the ones that create all the innovation. They're the ones creating our future. And bookkeepers are one of the most powerful elements to helping them be more successful. So, you know, that's my deep, deep, deep passion. And if I look at my partners, Debbie and Peter, they have different driving passions and missions. Like my mission is different than theirs, but we align on the mission of transforming the bookkeeping industry by helping great bookkeepers grow their business. And so, you know, it's just interesting if we look at it from both individuals in a company to a company, to the marketplace, it's very, very powerful when you get aligned with your own vision, your own mission. Okay. 

MP: 32:39 Absolutely. And understanding the effect that we're having on the world. By doing that, if you think about what would happen, what does happen by empowering those entrepreneurs? If you think about what is an entrepreneur? An entrepreneur is somebody who follows their dreams so that they can do something that they enjoy to make money, right? Those are the main reasons why everyone starts a business to do what they love and to make money, and if either one of those things is not in place, go get a job showing it and you're not making a profit and it's not working. Now, if you're not enjoying it, that's a personal thing. You know? Why is it that you started your business and what can help you get back to that? You know that that can be looked at more emotionally. If you're not making a profit, that's something that you might be able to get some help with from a professional, but the main idea here is that when we say we want to make the world a better place, building a foundation of thriving small businesses, what that means is that we want the people around us. 

IE: 33:44 To all be doing what they love and making good money doing it. Because when that happens, our communities will be made up of happier, healthier people who then, in turn, spend their hard-earned dollars, well-earned dollars with other wonderful local small businesses who are doing what they love. And then we'll have healthier, happier communities. And when our global economy is made up of a larger percentage of small businesses, that is something that our legislators need to listen to that makes the world a better place. 

MP: 34:22 Absolutely. Absolutely. So it's, it's, it's been so awesome to have you on the show and we're, we're out there making the difference that we, uh, we truly want to make and really excited to see your show grow. It's already doing fabulous and your businesses doing fabulous. I'm excited to see, see the future. 

IE: 34:46 Yeah. And it would be fun to have you on our show sometime, Michael. You can come to talk to the puppets. It's like being on the muppet show. 

MP: 34:52 I would love it. I absolutely love it. 

IE: 34:56 And that's a great opportunity also for all of the bookkeepers and accountants listening to this right now. We built this show, ask a bookkeeper for you to reach your audience, so if there is a piece of education that you would like to get out there, if you niche in restaurants and have a particular technique or something that you would like to educate restaurant owners about, that's something that we created this show to be able to do and it makes it so that you don't have to know how to set up a YouTube channel and do videos and those sorts of things. We make it easy just like how Michael makes it easy to come and be on a podcast, so we want to make it so that everyone's getting the right people because if a restaurant ever calls us, we're referring to mine and how can we more effectively set each other up as the experts. 

MP: 35:43 Fantastic. Now we're going to have all the links in the show notes but share with the listener. Now, where can they find out more about asked the bookkeeper and yourself if they want to connect with you? 

IE: 35:57 Sure. Ask a bookkeeper. It's pretty easy. It's Askabookkeeper.com and that is the main page that will lead you to our Facebook group. Um, we have, uh, a closed forum on Facebook where people can discuss some of the ideas around the show, bring up other topics. And the main thing is that it's a really nice mix of both accounting professionals and small business owners. So a lot of the other forums for accounting professionals tend to get really, really technical. We like to make sure that this phase entry-level and the puppets are kind of our seatbelt to make sure that that happens. We like to keep things in eighth grade and below kind of ideas. You know, not to say that we can't talk about business, we're definitely talking about business, but we're avoiding industry jargon. So that's a great forum to really reach small business owners and connects with other accounting professionals and can also find our youtube channel and our podcasts from there. And then if people want to know more about polymath and what we're doing, um, we also have a mastermind group for accounting professionals. We do a lot of education with other accounting professionals. You can find all that information at Polymath.com 

MP: 37:05 That's great. Excellent. Well, Ingrid, thank you so much for being on the podcast. 

IE: 37:11 My pleasure. Thanks for having me, Michael. This was a lot of fun talking with you. 

MP: 37:14 You Bet. We'll do it again at some point. That wraps another episode of The Successful Bookkeeper podcast. To learn more about today's guests and to get access to all sorts of valuable free business-building resources, you can go to Thesuccessfulbookkeeper.com until next time, 

MP: 37:30 goodbye