Modern Thought Management

 

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August 3, 2015 Issue

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Bookkeeping and Accounting Services for small businesses, startups, and individuals with a focus on analytics

 


Greg Deveault

 

Modern Thought Management

www.modernthought.co

 

Interview conducted by:

Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published – August 3, 2015

 

CEOCFO: Mr. Deveault, what is the idea behind Modern Thought Management?

Mr. Deveault: Modern Thought Management was founded in 2010. We started relatively small by providing bookkeeping services to smaller advertising agencies and startup-based production companies. Essentially, what we noticed was that for these industry clients, when they landed a big campaign that would require them to ramp up their operations, they would hire freelancers to provide accounting services on those large projects. Often, the problem with hiring freelancers is that as soon as their check clears, they are out of there, and you end up with loose ends that create a mess once those larger projects are finished. Therefore, we decided to increase our role with these types of companies by not only providing bookkeeping services for the day-to-day operations, but also giving our clients the opportunity to ramp up and use our resources to provide accounting services on their larger jobs as well. What you get there is a cohesive unit that understands the company, knows the ins and outs of the specific company’s accounting procedures, and in the end, you get a much cleaner, streamlined product. Our services became quite a popular option for many smaller ad agencies and production companies, so two or three years in, we started reaching out to other industries. We have had some success in industries such as financial services with private equity, hedge funds and wealth management firms, and we have also been helping tech startups with their accounting operations.

 

CEOCFO: Are you surprised the approach has not been tried before?

Mr. Deveault: I was surprised, but I also believe that there are some services out there that do try this type of approach. However, they do not seem to be capable of keeping up with today’s startup, advertising or financial services cultures. You have accounting firms and then you have freelance bookkeepers, and we are somewhere floating in between those two. Where an accounting firm might be fixated and obsessed with tax to a fault, and where the bookkeepers are only focused on data entry, getting the date entered and getting out of town, we are somewhere in the middle, working on a consultative basis. We are not only getting the booking work done and handling some of the tax, but we are also working globally with the company to ensure that it is running as efficiently as possible. That is where we really shine. In addition, we are able to allow our clients to effectively outsource their operational and accounting functions to us, so that they can then focus 100% on their products and their services and growing their company. We take care of an area that a startup may not be so knowledgeable about.

 

CEOCFO: What is your business model?

Mr. Deveault: We have a small team, primarily based in New York City. We focus specifically on providing operational services, and one of the keys to our business model is making sure that we always have enough bandwidth to be able to handle any kind of workload that a client hands to us. In that way, if a huge global ad campaign comes in to a smaller client of ours, we are able to handle that type of workload without interrupting our functions for our other clients. We also always make sure that we leave a few hours free every week, just in case something comes up. If you look at all of those free hours, the aggregate works out to be enough to cover any special project that might come up without warning.

 

CEOCFO: Would you give us an example of what you understand, so that when you are working with a client, you can advise them in a more modern way?

Mr. Deveault: One of the biggest advantages that we have is that the founding partners of Modern Thought Management were previously employed in the venture capital industry. I was a valuations analyst for a small venture capital firm before starting Modern Thought Management. Therefore, we are able to approach our clients’ needs from an accounting, bookkeeping and business standpoint, with that venture capital lens. This means for anything that we do, we are able to focus on increasing the investment worthiness of any particular company’s operation. Coming from a venture capital background versus coming from a straight up accounting background really gives us a unique perspective on making business decisions. That is one of the biggest areas where we are able to use a different approach than you would see at a standard accounting firm.

 

CEOCFO: How do you reach out to potential clients and are you are moving into newer industries?

Mr. Deveault: We do not necessarily focus on cold calling, outward sales, or mass mailers. We do not really advertise per se.  Part of our strategy for bringing in new clients is to treat our existing clients really well. Literally, 80% of new business comes from just word of mouth from existing clients. It has worked really well for us. It stems from providing good services to the clients that you have and believing that the growth will come, which has played out really well for us.

 

CEOCFO: How do you work with companies that have a global reach or are looking for one, as often that means different finance, different taxes and different systems?

Mr. Deveault: It can be challenging at times but we like a challenge. We are fortunate to have some global partners in the United Kingdom, Australia, France and South Korea, who we have worked with in the past regarding various tax and business issues. We have really relied on those global partners to help us, and we reciprocate whenever we can.

 

CEOCFO: Do many of your clients automatically take advantage of your consulting side or do they need to be convinced of your knowledge?

Mr. Deveault: Every client coming on board is a little bit different. With some, we start working in just one area, whether it is just providing bookkeeping for them or filing a tax return that they need to have completed. We start the relationship small, then work our way up to making it more valuable to them. With some clients, that process is a necessity in order to build trust, but with others, it is just a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Your client might only need a tax return right now, but if they have a need down the road, we will be the first ones that they call because they will remember that it was really great working with us. Most new clients come to us because they were working with an accounting firm or bookkeeper that was not doing a good job, so there is a mess that needs to be cleaned up. Therefore, we do a great deal of that kind of work to build trust and establish a relationship, and that gives us the opportunity to take over the account.

 

CEOCFO: Your site indicates you provide service to clients specifically towards enhancing the investment worthiness of any venture. How so?

Mr. Deveault: There are two ways of approaching accounting and bookkeeping. Most of the time,  many firms will just focus on bookkeeping, where bookkeepers will come in, enter in the transactions, reconcile the accounts and then leave. Our approach with bookkeeping is to look at transactions line by line and seek better ways of conducting the underlying business. For example, another bookkeeper would go in to do data entry and simply enter in a charge to Verizon, AT&T and Sprint, then leave for the day. What we would do at Modern Thought Management is look at these three different charges and make a note that these are all telecommunications companies, then look to see if there is any overlap or any area where we could renegotiate one of these contracts, or possible consolidate them and save the firm money. It is that kind of analytical and problem-solving approach that allows us increase the investment worthiness of any firm.

 

CEOCFO: Do your clients tend to follow your recommendations?

Mr. Deveault: Our clients do tend to follow our recommendations. Our approach is very intuitive, and sometimes with small businesses just getting a third party into the mix to help them with making hundreds of decisions day to day makes all the difference in the world.

 

CEOCFO: What surprised you as Modern Thought Management has grown and evolved?

Mr. Deveault: The biggest surprise for me has been how flexible our approach is when repurposing it for any industry out there. We started in advertising and we have clients now who are manufacturing, global finance and are tech startups. We have yet to find a client for whom our approach does not work, so the most pleasant surprise is knowing that our model works across the board.

 

CEOCFO: Put it all together for our readers. Why choose Modern Thought Management?

Mr. Deveault: If you are considering hiring a freelance bookkeeper to do your accounting, you should hire Modern Thought Management instead because we have an entire team of dedicated bookkeepers who have a method that is rooted in venture capital, analytics and improving your numbers, not just entering your numbers. We are a dedicated team that is not going to leave you high and dry once the check clears. Having us as a resource to look over your numbers, understand your numbers and then take action on those numbers is really going to help you as a business owner make better decisions, have better financial reporting, be more profitable and be more enticing to outside investors. The value that this adds to your company is leaps and bounds over someone who is just entering numbers and calling it a day. On the accounting front, there are many accounting firms out there that understand taxation and your industry, but they are huge and expensive. Therefore, Modern Thought Management is able to come in with more of a boutique, personable approach and provides the same expertise on a global scale by utilizing all of our outside business partners. Because we do not have a global conglomerate overhead, we are able to come in and be much more price competitive. Therefore, you get better, faster and cheaper services that are rooted in venture capital, and we are able to focus on not just tax, but providing an overall solution for helping you run your business better.



 

“If you are considering hiring a freelance bookkeeper to do your accounting, you should hire Modern Thought Management instead because we have an entire team of dedicated bookkeepers who have a method that is rooted in venture capital, analytics and improving your numbers, not just entering your numbers… On the accounting front, there are many accounting firms out there that understand taxation and your industry, but they are huge and expensive. Therefore, Modern Thought Management is able to come in with more of a boutique, personable approach and provides the same expertise on a global scale by utilizing all of our outside business partners.”- Greg Deveault


 

Modern Thought Management

www.modernthought.co



 


 

 



 

 


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