How do small business owners track what they spend? The answer is surprisingly murky. Most do not actually know. There are few standards.
We got curious about that as we started a new project for our client, the bookkeeping service Pilot. The company has 2,000 small business and startup customers which makes it the largest of its kind in the U.S. That should give you a sense of the fragmentationâthere are 33 million small businesses. Millions of owners, millions of unique ways of tracking their finances. Everyone painstakingly reinventing what already exists.
Picture an owner combing a hand through their hair as they stare down tax forms after a grueling week, not knowing if they've made or lost money. I feel that at Fenwick. Most of these owners have an average of just 27 days of cash on hand.
Pilot brought on Fenwick to figure out how they could use content to help small businesses ease this pain to be more profitable. But in an unexpected turn, Fenwick then hired Pilot to handle our accounting. This is a story about our research, told through insights gleaned. It's also about how we go so gonzo on research that sometimes, we sell ourselves on the story we're tellingâliterally.
This is an extreme example. But that participatory approach puts power behind our writing. We aren't just interviewing the customer. We are the customer.
Insight 1: Most owners have multiple ventures
When we asked small business owners about their company, most replied, "Which one?" Some have as many as four. Thereâs usually a primary thing, then a thing they do for joy. They are placing bets and running tests to create the life they want. Many are stressed; itâs a great weight. But they prefer it.
When asked why they work for themselves, they say they couldnât have another boss.
Insight 2: Their bookkeeper is family
One consultant described her bookkeeper as âher mother.â We later learned she really meant it. Her mom does her books. Thatâs not just a trend, practically everyone does it: The first person most owners turn to is a trusted someone in their life. A friend. A former coworker. A family member.
Very often, that helper is not professionally trained in bookkeeping, invoicing, and the like. (Though that consultantâs mom was.)
Insight 3: All owners are financially suspicious
Related to the prior point about hiring friends, almost everyone distrusts the numbers they see in their accounting software QuickBooks. The reports say one thing, but they know it to be wrongâwhy isnât the new freezer showing on the balance sheet? Were sales really that low?
Because they delegate, they are unsure. This creates what Eve calls ânumbers anxietyââyou know the profit and loss statement (P&L) is mildly incorrect, are paralyzed by how much work itâd take to fix, and so live in a twilight of unknowing.
Maebellyne, Alexis, Lauren, Haley, and the whole Pilot marketing team really helped us understand thisâone would assume numbers and math are objective but they arenât. If you want your books to reveal your profit margin, you need a bookkeeper to make judgment calls and set it up that way.
Pilotâs case studies are clearâwhen a business owner has that help, they finally start building their cash reserves.
Insight 4: Big Brother pretends to be their friend
Giant corporations like Intuit or Microsoft love to market to small businesses. Their ads are typically ingratiatingâfull of hyperbole and breathless praise. What heroes! But their service sucks.
âI find every software company to be a villain,â said one owner we talked to. âThey keep changing their pricing models. Thereâs no support. Sometimes you donât even realize youâre paying double.â
Itâs like that in finance. Big companies want your money but donât help.
Insight 5: Owners are used to being let down
While we were researching, Pilotâs sketchy competitor imploded. It emailed all customers saying, âThis is the last day of serviceâ and its website went dark on December 27âright at the start of tax season, during a holiday when many owners finally got a break with family.
That company, Bench, had mismanaged its own cash. This irony was not lost on small business owners who, once again, combed a hand through hair as they pored over bills.
Pilotâs approachâoffering actual human bookkeepers who take actual time to get to know their customers, has never been more relevant. Our research done, Fenwick set about helping tell that story.
To write like the customer, be the customer
Fenwick has cycled through three accountants over the past six years. We know what it's like to feel condescended by a company that can't be bothered to listen. Pilotâs âLetâs be humans in this space everyoneâs trying to automateâ struck a chord. Iâd been living in numbers anxiety.
This is not the first time Iâve become a customer of a client. Our principle Participatory Narrative encourages us to try whatever weâre writing about. Usually that means a trial; there are lots of ways to apply this cheaply. But always, somehow, we try to feel what it's like to be a customer.
Itâs hard to beat that firsthand knowledge. Nobody writes and designs as believably as someone who is living it.
Principle
âïž Participatory Narrative
We believe that to create, you must first live. We seek out opportunities to participate in our clientsâ narratives, to immerse ourselves in the subject matter, and to know it firsthand. We read their books, try their software, shadow their meetings, meet their customers, and politely insist on time with experts. Itâs what makes the stories meaningful.
How to apply todayâs story
Whatâs something you write about that youâve never actually tried? Can you? I bet your boss or client would be thrilled.
My favorite interview I wrote lately got quashed by Amazonâs comms team. But you can listen to a one-minute call with the subject, Andy Jassy. Really hear how he speaks. Notice that? Totally absent of buzzwords. Corporate speak is a phase. This is what comes after.
