Sara Snyder is a Certified Public Accountant with a background in accounting since 2017. Currently, she serves as an Account Manager and Outsourced CFO at Craig Cody and Company, Inc., specializing in advanced tax reduction with the designation of Certified Tax Coach.

In this episode of the Progressive Agency Podcast, I sat down with Sara Snyder, our lead CFO, to discuss how technology has revolutionized our accounting services for agencies. We explored the use of tools like Bill.com for streamlining accounts payable and receivable processes.

Sara explained the benefits of outsourcing financial tasks to professionals, including cost-effectiveness, consistency, and freeing up internal resources for higher-value work.

We also touched on additional services that accounting firms can offer agencies beyond basic bookkeeping, such as cash flow projections, budgeting, and helping maintain profitability through industry benchmarking.

• How Bill.com helps keep invoices streamlined and organized
• Streamlining approval processes for invoices for companies with remote workers
• Scheduling invoice payouts ahead of time
• Managing accounts receivable
• The benefits of outsourcing financial services
• Other services provided by finance professionals
• The importance of accrual-based accounting for agencies
• How proper financial reporting supports tax planning

• Website: http://www.craigcodyandcompany.com/
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-snyder-cpa-ctc-321596191/
• LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/craig-cody-and-company/

In this episode of The Progressive Agency Podcast, we revisit the Corporate Transparency Act and its implications for business owners. We explore the critical details of the Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting requirements, which affect small- to mid-sized business entities in the United States.

Business owners need to be vigilant about ongoing compliance with the new BOI reporting requirements. Due to the potential for daily penalties, it’s crucial for businesses to have a system in place to track and report updates to their beneficial ownership information promptly and accurately.

To help business owners get ahead of these changes, we outline who qualifies as a beneficial owner, the four ways an individual can be considered to exercise substantial control, and the specific information that must be reported to FinCEN. We also address the ongoing compliance requirements to report any changes in BOI information in a timely manner and exemptions for certain larger businesses.

• When reporting must be completed by
• What is beneficial ownership information (BOI)?
• Four ways an individual can be considered a beneficial owner
• How to report beneficial owner information
• Penalties incurred for missing reporting deadlines
• Being aware of potential scams
• Who’s exempt from reporting?
• Rules for rental properties, LLCs, and other side hustles

• Website: http://www.craigcodyandcompany.com/
• Twitter: @CraigC2742
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigcodycpa
• BOI Report FinCEN

Katy Boos founded Remix Communications because she’s passionate about creating impactful thought leadership programs for her clients. Brainstorming compelling topics and narratives, Katy helps bring ideas to life on stage at top industry events for clients such as Adobe, Meta, Stitch Fix and several successful start-ups. Before Remix, Katy co-founded a successful Silicon Valley marketing/PR firm which she exited in 2016. Earlier she managed PR programs at Apple for Media & Entertainment and mobile products.

In this episode, Katy shares her expertise on how agency owners can use speaking engagements and thought leadership to generate new clients and grow their businesses.

She discusses the three-stage approach to maximizing speaking opportunities — pre-event promotion, making the most of your time at the event, and post-event activities. She emphasizes the importance of choosing compelling, niche topics that resonate with the target audience, and covers strategies for landing speaking engagements.

Don’t let imposter syndrome hold you back – everyone has expertise to share. Katy has the skills and knowledge to teach agency owners how they can turn their shared knowledge into right-fit opportunities.

• How agencies and agency owners can use public speaking to generate new clients
• Promoting your speaking opportunity before, during, and after
• Finding the right topic that fits your expertise
• Niching down your topic to be industry-specific
• Understanding your audience and what they want to hear
• Finding the events that are a good fit for you
• Partnering and collaboration to boost credibility
• Paid vs. unpaid speaking
• How much should you give away?

• Website: https://remixcommunications.com/resources/
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katyboos/
• LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/remixcommunications/
• Twitter: https://x.com/Remix_Comms
• Facebook Business: https://www.facebook.com/RemixCommunications
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/remix_comms/

Marcel Petitpas is the CEO & Co-Founder of Parakeeto, a company dedicated to helping agencies measure and improve their profitability by streamlining their operations and reporting systems.

He is also the head strategic coach at SaaS Academy by Dan Martell, the #1 coaching program for B2B SaaS businesses in the world.

In this week’s episode of The Progressive Agency Podcast, I’m joined by Marcel Petitpas to share the importance of understanding your agency’s financial metrics, particularly focusing on delivery margin. We discussed the challenges many agencies face in accurately calculating their profitability and how to overcome them.

Marcel provided practical advice on how agency owners can start implementing frameworks and processes around certain key data points in their businesses to get a more accurate look at how the agency is operating. He emphasized the power of small improvements in utilization and average billable rate to significantly impact bottom-line profitability.

By focusing on a few simple operational levers, agency owners can dramatically improve their profitability without necessarily increasing their revenue or changing their cost structure. Join us to learn how.

• Understanding the crucial difference between net income and delivery margin
• The three operational levers driving agency profitability
• Calculating and interpreting average cost per hour
• The power of improving average billable rate
• The importance of proper data structuring for accurate financial insights
• Balancing precision and accuracy in financial metrics
• Strategies for improving profitability by finding efficiencies in the agency

• Website: https://parakeeto.com/
• Toolkit: https://parakeeto.com/toolkit/?utm_source=Podcast&utm_medium=GuestAppearance&utm_campaign=CraigCody
• Podcast: https://agencyprofitpodcast.simplecast.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcelpetitpas/
• Course: https://parakeeto.com/Foundations-course-launch-offer/?utm_source=Podcast&utm_medium=GuestAppearance&utm_campaign=CraigCody

Creative Strategist and Growth Accelerator Karley Cunningham develops brand leaders by taking businesses from overcrowded, competitive spaces into blue ocean territory, where

they can confidently stand out and thrive. Companies that want to be distinct in their marketplace retain Karley to sharpen their positioning and differentiation strategies to cut through the noise.

Karley’s international client base benefits from accelerated growth, increased profit and stability as her innovative Surefire Method™ provides them with an infallible business strategy and brand toolkit to stand out in the sea of sameness, attract the people their business needs to thrive, and become a brand leader in their industry.

In this episode of The Progressive Agency Podcast, Karley shares her journey from graphic designer to agency owner, and discusses the importance of brand strategy for businesses of all sizes.

According to Karley, only about 28% of business owners are satisfied with their brands. This leaves a huge opportunity open for strategists like her to help find the gaps and implement new brand strategies that business owners love.

Karley emphasizes the critical role of brand and business strategy alignment. She explains how businesses often struggle with implementing their brand strategy, leading her to incorporate coaching sessions into her own model to help clients implement their newly-developed brand tools.

• The importance of brand strategy for businesses of all sizes
• Karley’s Surefire Method™ for giving businesses a comprehensive brand strategy
• Challenges in implementing a new brand strategy
• The importance of values alignment in hiring decisions
• Measuring brand strategy ROI
• The “long tail equation” for quantifying brand value
• Why only 28% of business owners are satisfied with their branding
• Branding vs. marketing for small businesses — which is better?

• Website: https://www.bigboldbrand.com
• Surefire Audit & Guide: https://www.bigboldbrand.com/surefireaudit/
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karleycunningham/

Casey Brown is a pricing geek, professional speaker, and President of Boost Pricing, a firm that helps companies sell at higher prices. Her passion is for organizations to be paid well for their excellence. With degrees in Chemical Engineering, Spanish, and Business, and career experience in engineering, Six Sigma, and pricing strategy for multiple Fortune 500 companies, Casey brings unmatched expertise to help audiences discover their true pricing power—and watch their profits rise as a result. Her 2015 TED talk has over 5 million views to date.

In this episode of The Progressive Agency Podcast, we welcome Casey Brown to teach us how to price our products and services boldly and confidently. For nearly 15 years, Casey has seen it all when it comes to agency pricing and wants to help agencies know their worth and charge for it appropriately

She shares how companies can stop undervaluing their products and services to clients (new and legacy), why overcommunication is unnecessary when increasing prices, setting boundaries around pricing and the services you provide, and more.

If you’re an agency owner, you probably already know that you deserve to be paid more for your work. Now’s the time to figure out your true value proposition and execute on it to start getting paid what you’re really worth.

• Getting a realistic understanding of your value proposition
• How to raise your prices responsibly
• Is it worth increasing prices on legacy clients, or is it time to let them go?
• Having self-awareness about how you work for pricing structure
• Building trust and proving value to new clients
• The price-quality effect

• Website: https://boostpricing.com/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@boostpricing
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseybrownboost/
• Boost Blog: https://boostpricing.com/2017/06/15/price-increase-tmi/

Corey is the owner and President/CEO of Voltage. He has spent nearly 20 years working in strategic and leadership roles focused on growing national and local client brands with award-winning, ROI-generating digital strategies. His industry leadership, client success, and community-focused work made him recipient of the KCDMA 2019 Marketer of the Year award.

Corey’s first book titled The Digital Marketing Success Plan is available now on Amazon.

In this episode of The Progressive Agency Podcast, we welcome Corey Morris to share his thoughts on the rapidly changing world of digital marketing and SEO from the perspective of someone with nearly 20 years in the industry.

He emphasizes the critical importance of strategic planning in digital marketing to ensure ROI and avoid common pitfalls, such as misalignment between marketing efforts and business outcomes. He also shares the START framework that he developed, which proves a structured approach to digital marketing planning and execution.

We also touch on the impact of AI on digital marketing, the need for adaptability in marketing strategies, and ways to address trust issues some businesses may have with past digital marketing or agency experiences.

• The massive disruption of SEO in recent years
• Why agency owners shouldn’t DIY their own digital marketing
• The inspiration behind Corey’s book, The Digital Marketing Success Plan
• Why having a digital marketing plan is so important for ROI
• Getting over agency and digital marketing distrust
• The START Framework
• How AI impacts SEO and digital marketing
• What to do after you put your digital marketing plan into place

• Website: https://voltage.digital
• Facebook Business: https://www.facebook.com/voltagekc
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreymorris/
• LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/voltagedigital/
• Twitter Personal: https://twitter.com/coreydmorris
• Twitter Business: https://twitter.com/VoltageKC
• Instagram Business: https://www.instagram.com/voltagekc/
• Book: https://thedmsp.com

David Tobin is the Founder and Managing Partner of TobinLeff, an M&A advisory and exit planning consulting firm with a mission to help business owners maximize and monetize their life’s work.

David and the team at TobinLeff have worked with well over 200 companies to develop exit plans, sell to strategic and financial buyers, and build value via strategic acquisitions. He has been a Board member with multiple nonprofit organizations including the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Homeless Children’s Education Fund.

In this episode of The Progressive Agency Podcast, we welcome David Tobin, Founder and Managing Partner of Tobin & Company M&A Advisory. David shares his expertise on exit planning and selling businesses, particularly for agency owners.

David discusses the importance of selling from a position of strength, emphasizing the benefits of advance planning and preparation. He explains the differences between selling to strategic buyers, financial buyers, and internal management teams, outlining typical deal structures and valuations for each.

He provides practical advice on managing a business to ensure a lucrative exit. He highlights key value drivers such as strong profit margins, demonstrable growth plans, and a unique value proposition.

• How an agency owner can prepare to sell their business from a position of strength
• The most common questions from buyers
• The difference between financial, strategic, and internal buyers
• Internal vs. external sales and what to expect in each scenario
• How an ESOP works
• Managing your business today to ensure a lucrative exit
• Discovering your unique value proposition
• Adjusting EBITDA to benefit the buyer

• Website: https://tobinleff.com/
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-tobin-120658184/
• Linkedin Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tobinleff-llc/
• 7 Best Practices for Managing for a Rewarding Exit: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EN7nzLAQD07EmOweoEC8kA7CTiT5Uumd/view?usp=drive_link
• Questions Buyers Typically Ask: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AoiK_S6wNrWX91Z5ppKfBxPvP99DNADL/view?usp=drive_link