What Kind of Birds Do You Want in Your Yard?
Which bird always gets first place?
A Peng-win.
::Together With Financial Cents::
Billing and Proposals is live in both the US and Canada now. Imagine the freedom of integrating this directly into your workflow!
We love our feathered friends and encourage them to play on our property with feeders, houses, plantings and water sources. They give us so much joy and are a happy addition to the natural wonders of our place.
Ish.
There are some caveats to this. We have a specific plan for when the feeders go out and get stored away, which ones we use, and what food goes in them to attract or repel birds in different seasons.
We love the colourful birds, like Bluejays, Cardinals and Blackbirds, but they are very pushy and squawky, so we only want them around in the winter. The sunflower seeds and open feeders are vanquished from May to November. Same with the mixed seed that the Juncos love. The Juncos are cuties, but messy; they like their seed scattered on the ground, and that just ain’t going to happen for us unless it’s snowy out.
The Chickadees, Goldfinches and Nuthatches are welcome in all seasons, so we hang suet balls and keep the tube feeders full with Nijer seed year-round. Watching the Goldies change from yellow to brown and back to yellow seasonally is really cool.
Some of our dearest are seasonal migrants, like Hummingbirds and Orioles.
Hummies are my absolute favourite, and I nurture them painstakingly. Orioles like the same feeders and food. The Orioles come a month ahead of the Hummies, so the feeders go out at the end of April. We don’t use a commercial food mix; it’s simply ¼ sugar to water shaken up and changed every few days to keep it safe for the wee birdies to consume. The Oriloles tend to move on by the time my tiny friends move up, but even if there are a few Orangies left, the Hummies are wildly aggressive and don’t want for sustenance. We have to use glass feeders, with metal “flower openings”, though; the squirrels decimate anything plastic*.
We have a few other varieties that don’t need food or feeders; they live off our plants' nectar and seeds, but having the right houses encourages them to reside where we can hear and see them. In particular, we have a few Wren houses. This tiny little thing puffs up mightily and lets out the sweetest twill you will ever hear. We recently put a fountain in our front yard, so we can watch them bathe (so adorable), and it keeps them safe from the menacing Swans on our lakeside.
Of course, we have lots of other varieties that come and go, but we don’t need to do anything encouraging. We have a conservation area behind us with an abundance of trees they love, and a lake with plenty of fish for all the waterfowl.
We should consider our clients as birds we are trying to attract. Some are noisy, some are demanding, and some just don’t align with the services we want to offer—or the way we want to work.
Just like Jeff and I have set up our property to attract the birds we love (and discourage the ones we don’t), you need to build your firm to attract the right clients.
One
Define what you want your firm to look like; services you love and loathe to deliver, tech stack, industries you want to work in…
Two
Identify who your ideal clients are. I have a worksheet for this ⬅️ if you are having trouble getting started.
Three
Build a discovery and onboarding process to match your ideal clients. I have a template for that :-}
Four
Help some of your clients leave your nest. I realize this is really, really hard. And even harder if you like the clients. You can like them, but they may still not be a fit for your firm. This disengagement template will help you with graceful flights.
Once you have defined who you want to work with, it will be time to plant the best garden and put out the right feed in the right feeders. More on that next week.
Kellie :-}
*Squirrels are the spammers of the animal world 😜😜😜
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Signwell: Value Added Client Services: Creating a Profitable AR Service Offering in QBO
Thursday, May 29, 2025
2:00 - 3:00 PM
