Why are we so polite to rude people? Often, kindness is instinct or avoidance of conflict—but there’s a limit. Respond with grace, protect your team’s confidence, and know when it’s time to let toxic clients go.

A viral Instagram video showed a smart car parallel parking in a huge space. At first laughable, it revealed a lesson: don’t judge too quickly. In life and business, ask, listen, stay kind, and consider alternative perspectives.

Not every provider is for every client. The best matches happen when providers set expectations, create calm experiences, and add value beyond the service. Ideal clients recognize this and build lasting relationships grounded in care, trust, and professionalism.

Attract the right clients with the right mix of channels, content, and tools—just like birds flock to the right feeder. Tailor your setup to your niche and watch them come back again and again.

Just like choosing which birds to attract to your yard with the right feeders and plantings, you should design your business to attract ideal clients. Define what you want, set boundaries, and create systems that welcome the right fit—and gently guide the rest to fly on.

Legacy businesses risk fading away if they don’t evolve. Modernize your firm by ditching paper, using online scheduling, and implementing practice management apps to enhance efficiency and client experience. Don’t let outdated processes hold you back—embrace cloud-based accounting, automation, and digital workflows to future-proof your business.

I built a custom chatbot for my website in under five minutes using Chatbase—no coding required! Now, Decimal enhances user experience by answering FAQs and making site searches more interactive. AI-powered chatbots are a game-changer for customer engagement, automation, and website support. If you've been putting off chatbot integration, now’s the time!

Big institutions make simple tasks feel like an obstacle course—endless emails, clunky PDFs, and zero streamlined processes. From renewing insurance to securing a line of credit, it's a frustrating maze.

Here's the fix: Make it easy for clients! Use online forms, secure uploads, e-signatures, and clear instructions. A seamless process isn’t just nice—it keeps clients from looking elsewhere.

Contingency planning is crucial for accounting and bookkeeping firms to maintain data security, service continuity, and regulatory compliance. This blog covers key strategies, such as documenting workflows, using password managers, ensuring client data backups, and preparing your team for unexpected disruptions. Implementing these steps ensures your business runs smoothly and your clients are well-supported during any unforeseen circumstances.

Discover the 10 common pitfalls that can drive clients away—before you even realize it. From unclear communication to rushing relationships, our guide helps you identify and fix the habits that might be costing you valuable business.

Gratitude in action: a heartfelt thank you for doing what’s expected—whether it’s completing tasks, meeting deadlines, or simply showing up with a great attitude. It’s the small acknowledgments that create big waves of appreciation

Feeling overwhelmed by app choices? Explore the frustration of decision paralysis through a fun analogy of golf cart shopping. Learn practical steps to streamline your tech upgrades and avoid being bogged down by too many options.

I read this review description for a business, and it has stuck with me. It wasn’t for a bakery. Or a restaurant. It was for a women’s clothing store. It made me want to find the store just to see what was so great about the customer experience that it could draw a review so sweet and delicious.

We work for our clients, but unlike many businesses, we need to collaborate to accomplish things. It’s not like many businesses where the interactions are transactional. Without cooperation on shared tasks and clear communication, we can not complete our work for them, and our workflows will remain incomplete, which is super frustrating.

I have written previously that my husband, Jeff, has a few organizational quirks, such as not embracing naming conventions, but he excels at setting expectations and enforcing boundaries.

He has a fly fishing guiding company, Calmwaters Fly Fishing, which is committed to the preservation of fish for generations to come, so they are a catch-and-release guiding company and use barbless hooks on their flies. He gets many inquiries from anglers who would like to keep their fish, and he always says no to these requests. Always…

If you have read my musings in the past, you will know that my husband and I have two Australian Shepards. I have written that the one on the left, Sharkie, is a gentle beauty, and the one on the right, Tippet, is…well.. enthusiastic.

And anxious.

And unruly.

And doesn’t listen.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again “Letting go of clients is hard”. Really, really hard. I am never going to minimize the hand-wringing of churning out clients. But you should start to identify which clients are Tippet clients.

You don’t need to be all gloaty, but for crying out loud, let your clients know the weight you are taking off them with the services you provide.

The pain you have taken away from your clients may become their everyday expectation.

A cool reverse advertising campaign run by The Cossette Group for The Canadian Dairy Farmers more than 17 years ago, has stuck with me. The tagline was “Stop Cooking With Cheese”, and I use the saying often.

It was based on the premise that parents wanted to get their twenty-something-year-olds out of the house, but they were taking too good of care of them - they were not motivating them to leave. Cooking with cheese is obviously amazing (if you don’t like cheese, you are probably an alien…), so why would anyone leave a house that cooks with it?

We have all been there with clients pushing us against the wall on deadlines.

• Last-minute government filings

• “Emergency” calls on financials for loan documents

• Banks freezing accounts

• Payroll not hitting employee bank accounts

You can all name numerous instances where clients have waited until the 11th hour to supply documents, approve reports or let you know trouble & required information deadlines are brewing.

It is all relevant to the stage your business is in - it’s all about you!

I often talk about the need to guard your scheduler ferociously.

But I think it’s important to define how you guard it - who you let book, why you let them book and how you let them book.