Courtney Kehl

Hi there. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. Depending on where you’re calling in from or where you’re joining us from, we’re excited to have everyone. We are presenting on a topic that is not a common topic for us. We are marketers. So we typically cover marketing topics from events to SEO, to social media.

However, we have found that. The companies that we work with, they grow and they scale and as they do so it is it is very, very important to ensure that you have a great culture. And one of our partners KB Tax Devisors they have also come across really great companies that grow and scale, and they often find themselves working with folks that encounter gray cultures

so as such, let me introduce our co-host or our guest speaker here, Minal Babaria, and I cannot do justice in a introducing yourself. So I will leave that to you, to you. Thank

Minal Babaria

you so much for the warm welcome Courtney. And really it’s the pride moment for me to share this platform with you.

Courtney Kehl

Great. Yeah, absolutely.

Thanks so much for joining us. And here, we’re going to speak about maintaining your culture in a fast growing company. And as you do, so create a winning culture and of course maintaining great talent as you do. So, so maybe you can tell us a little bit about the folks that you work with, the clients I have and the, the, the people that you specifically mentoring.

Minal Babaria

Absolutely. Well we actually work with the business owners and entrepreneurs throughout the country and not just helping them on the tax and the accounting side, but also helping them have to be the best leader, have to recruit their employees, you know, providing them fractional CFO services and in maintain how becoming the leader.

That creating the culture that they enjoy as well as their whole team and Joyce within the company as well. So tax planning, CFO, and anything in between that goes in the life of an entrepreneur. Once you get into this real world of the business owners,

Courtney Kehl

Sure. Yeah, absolutely. One of the things that we immediately connected on as we’ve we EMA expert marketing advisors found KB is we, you know, we connected on it, just the size of our company and the like-mindedness.

And then as we started to work together, As yeah, may is growing. I have found that Minal has been a great coach in how we actively are putting dollars back into our pocket and actually being able to use them back toward the team. And so maybe you can speak a little bit on how that’s been just incredibly valuable on how other folks can do that.

Minal Babaria

Absolutely. I do remember our first few meetings when we spoke about feeding a culture and you know, most business owners, they want to give back to their employees, but they don’t know where to find that money. And of course you would not know it and you wouldn’t have access to it if you keep donating your hard earned money to the IRS.

So the goal here is to review your numbers and proactively plan, introducing your tax lab in a way that the money that is being wasted in terms of taxes, which you don’t have to pay, can be better utilized to compensate your employees and create the culture and, you know, create that belonging. I know last whole year was a little bit tough for many business owners and you know, many people had to made a tough choice of letting go of their employees or following their employees.

However, we have many clients where we help them pay a little extra to their employees and the way we do it is finding creative. Tax beneficial ways where you as an employer are paying to your employees. It’s costing you less, even though they’re paying them a little bit more because we are saving you on payroll taxes in a legal way, staying with the artist’s tax boundaries at the same time, your employees get some tax free benefits and in the when they are in disaster and independent.

A little bit of a small gesture to your employee shows that you care shows that you have empathy and have you cared about their team. So, and that goes a long way.

Courtney Kehl

Absolutely. Absolutely. One of the things as well to point out. So is it possible as the company and just the slide here just kind of speaks volumes as you kind of go from growing to scaling and really that hyper growth.

You have to be very proactive in, in ensuring you know, you have to take those steps, ensuring that that culture. Is shining back into the company and maintaining that talent and keeping that talent so that you don’t actually lose that. One of the things that I learned in working with you is that yes, you actually have to take active steps.

You have to. Just happen. Although it won’t happen if you don’t actually do anything but you can’t as a leader you can’t, you have to cultivate this. So you’ve actually had me working each week, each month to ensure that that the team knows that there, that there is values and a vision for the company moving forward.

And then hopefully pass that on down through the team. So there’s some, some lessons learned there and tips and tricks. And again, going back to it, putting dollars back into the pocket of the, of the employees and into the team, maybe some of

Minal Babaria

that. So here’s the thing, one of the things that has changed in last, especially the last year or a little bit over a year pay is one of the things that your team wants.

That’s fine, but all what an above people’s needs have changed a lot. Not all the employees are looking for a job just for the pay. What matters to them culture, you know, are you talking the language that they can understand? Are we giving them. Clarity at the same time you know do they feel appreciated?

Do they feel heard? No matter how many meetings you have to work a whole day, how much time are you giving to kind of sit down with them and talk with them. And you know, that those kinds of things does make a huge difference. And whether we create a culture. What if we don’t create a culture, it happens automatically.

So in our company, we kind of called why don’t we create a culture that we all love working together. And from time to time, we kind of roll out surveys, you know, and take action on the surveys as well. It’s not just rolling out a survey to your employees, but you know, we kind of fill out surveys and take action on that kind of come up with some creative ways.

Like for example, you know we kind of do ask me anything meetings, which is like every two weeks. And I kind of adopted this from one of my mentor. And in that particular meeting, it’s two way channel where employees ask us as to what we are planning to do in. Maybe things and we can ask our employees or anyone can ask anyone and it’s kind of an open platform there.

Everyone is humble enough to share. And just you know, we don’t create an employer employee kind of a boundary it’s kind of a team and it feels really good. Especially our team have really appreciated it. A couple of clients who have implemented the same thing have really appreciated that as well.

Courtney Kehl

Sure. Sure. Absolutely. So when you working with some of your customers, do you find that you can kind of spot the red flags as you’re going throughout the year and as they’re growing.

Minal Babaria

Well, we do find many red flags and, you know, the first thing that we do is kind of, we sit down and talk about what are the five or six, you know, main, important challenges that they are seeing in their business.

Now that could be related to anything. It could be, you know, reducing their operating costs. It could be a employment related issue. It could be a. That they are burned out. They need extra time, or they’re paying extra money in taxes and not having proper management report anything it is. And we kind of you know when we do the kickoff call, we kind of go over it in the order of priority.

What is most important? What is second important and third important and kind of hone in and tackle it down and create an action plan. To achieve and solve all of those problems. So it’s hand in hand, often times you know, entrepreneurs, they kind of, you know, they want to do so many things and doing 25% or 30% you know, those kinds of little bit here, there, here, there, it takes whatever to achieve and not knowing everything, you know, Entrepreneurs are really good at making money, business owners, making money, but then there are certain areas where you need help and it’s best to go over the professional who can not only guide you on the finances side, have to look and understand your budgets, have to generate cashflow statements and those kinds of things, but also have to set the budget for your team at the department.

And those kinds of things and have to officially use that money to create a tax benefit for you as a whole as well, because you, as a business owner, you should get some profit share and also need to reserve some of that courtship for your own share of taxes, right? Because this business is running on you.

So can we find that balance and something really important?

Courtney Kehl

Right. Right. And I’ve got to say in working with you, I have found that the stress changes from not worrying about being in the business, but being able to shift and work on the business, which is a really critical component. And then. Then being able to focus on the customers, focus on scaling and then really ultimately, I mean, I, for EMA expert marketing advisors, we work primarily with growth companies, B2B tech companies that are focused on as well.

They’re coming out of stealth. They’re going in the same path, assessing that grow scale and exit. So very similar. I think we all have this sort of sort of bird’s eye view of how companies go through this, you know, this, the growing pains. So same thing, if you can you know, keep your eye on the ball as far as you know, where the pains, where is the company going, and then, you know, you’ve got that financially secure mumps tax plan, all of the, all of the planning you’re able to really put the dollars where they’re, where they belong.

I will say that working with you it’s helped a lot in that regard, but I, but it is something that folks need to really take a moment to, to put together. Great, great. I’m going to put. Just one of CA for there’s folks out there that do actually have this in place where they’ve got team members and understand, and personally contribute to the culture and goals are, this is something that you know, they’ve actually set aside time the same way you’ve got surveys with your existing team.

If there’s mentors in place, if it’s when you onboard. You’re a new employees, or if it’s something maybe quarterly or at the half year mark, if people do a temperature check and and see where the culture stands, because it does go through various moments of change as, as companies grow,

it does.

Minal Babaria

Absolutely. And the thing is you know, Generating revenue is not tough. I mean, you can make a lot of money at the end of the day. How, how satisfied your employees are, how satisfied your team and how connected they are with the mission and vision of the company. And I mean, I believe in creating raving team members who can’t stop talking about you know, how great of a business or how great of a job.

So that really matters a lot. We have team members, you know, who would go to their family party and can stop talking about us.

Courtney Kehl

It attracts new talent as well. We get re references. A lot of our folks will come to us based off of other, other people that have told us that they, they, this is a great place to work. Some of our customers We, we see it from the outside which is, you know, it’s kind of what we call the politics and we, we don’t have to touch it, but we see it.

And and it can be pretty painful. Knowing that, that it’s, it’s something that you know, the people we work with, they go to sleep worrying about work that affects them on the weekends. And it’s, it really wears on that. Which, you know, you just feel for them. And you’re just really glad that it’s not the culture that you’re you have in your own.

Yes,

Minal Babaria

I must praise EMA on that side too, because you know, Courtney, you have done really well with your team and you know, you, you go that extra mile doing the Spidey’s days and day. And I mean, that, those things really matters, you know? I know you all have a busy life and a lot of things on our plate, but you know, just thinking outside the box and kind of taking care of them, thinking about them just makes a huge difference.

At the end of the day, money doesn’t solve all the problems, but not having enough money does create lots of problems and stress, which affects many areas of flight. That’s where, you know if you know this money that we don’t have to waste in terms of taxes, or, you know, if we can just include, increase a little bit of productivity or just know and have a little bit of clarity what are our main pain points in our financial statement?

You know, what can we vary? Can we get better? I be tracking numbers month over month. You know, those kinds of things. Again, help you better utilize the money which you taught. You never had it. It’s the earliest

rising.

Courtney Kehl

Sure, sure. Ultimately, the goal as we’re showing here is to create that, that larger company grow scale and create that security for the folks that are on your team and, and hopefully you know, create something that you love and, and.

And create a company that people love, that they continue to maintain that talent. Great. Well, I thank you for your time. Folks, we did push an announcement there, reach out. I, like I said, Minal is fantastic to work with and she’s always got her eye on what’s best for, for her customers and what’s best for you.

And so this has been fantastic conversation. We wanted to keep it nice and short. But the experience definitely lies on working with companies that are in that growth stage and scaling to to get bigger and better and go through to to exit. Actually we work uniquely with those growth comes.

Great.

Minal Babaria

Absolutely. Can I add one thing, Courtney? We have few minutes. One last thing I wanted to add, you know, think outside the box kind of creative vase have, can you pay your employees in a tax-free way? And some of them could be, you know, like accountable plan or qualified employee achievement program.

Or, you know, disaster benefits of where you are paying the employees and feeling good about helping them out. You’re not being paid or taxes on any of those money and your employee get tax-free money on in their hands. They don’t even have to report it in the tax engine. So that’s kind of a huge deal.

Courtney Kehl

Yeah. One of the ways I thought about it instantly as like, you’re kind of cutting it off at the past before uncle Sam gets to it. Absolutely great. I’m like, oh, that sounds good. Let’s do that. Great. Alrighty. Well, thanks so much everyone for joining us and I appreciate everybody giving us a little bit of time out of their very busy days.

All right.

Minal Babaria

Thank you Courtney, for having me.

Courtney Kehl

Of course already take care. We’ll talk soon. Bye bye.