Chasing sunsets and sales: accounting life from the road with Chad Davis
LiveCA’s co-founder Chad Davis takes cloud accounting to the extreme, finding ways to lead his company from the comfort of his family’s RV. The digital nomad lifestyle isn’t for everyone, but Chad and his family have perfected a travel rhythm that fits their needs.
Automation isn’t everything. LiveCA’s approach to inbound inquiries may be perceived as antiquated, especially for such a tech-forward company, but Chad believes the extra work is worth the effort.
The accounting industry is undergoing a collaboration renaissance spurred by the grueling realities of life as a CPA during a global pandemic.
When Chad Davis and his business partner, Josh Zweig, first founded their tech-focused accounting firm 10 years ago, they didn’t anticipate where it would take them: smack dab in the middle of a cloud accounting revolution, catalyzed by a global pandemic.
Today, Chad leads LiveCA’s development team from the comfort of his family’s RV, creating tech tools for his firm and its clients. He’s even developed resources for fellow tech-savvy accountants, including a job board designed to attract forward-thinking CPAs.
Joining from the road, Chad chats with Karbon CEO Stuart McLeod on an episode of the Accounting Leaders Podcast. They discuss everything from travel routes to sales funnel strategies. Chad even manages to turn the tables on our host, asking Stuart for his own opinions about the future of accounting.
The indirect benefits of cloud accounting
While most Karbon conversations about cloud-based accounting focus on workflow optimization and efficiency, Stuart and Chad discuss the benefits that stretch beyond the boundaries of any typical office atmosphere.
Chad and his family take full advantage of cloud-based accounting life. He’s spent the last four years chasing sunsets in an RV. Curious about the perfect seasonal route?
“Summer on the east coast of Canada between May and September is perfect. Then, between September and October, you can pretty much go anywhere. So we drive across Canada and head to Vancouver Island, BC. It’s just gorgeous,” Chad says. “Then Oregon in November and California in December. January, February, March we’ll go to Arizona. And then in April and May, we avoid Tornado Alley and drive back to the east coast of Nova Scotia.”
Not only does the ideal travel loop allow for optimum weather year-round, but it also enables Chad’s children to experience a non-traditional form of homeschooling. His kids can learn the basics through online courses, while also gaining a more worldly perspective from the family’s digital nomad lifestyle.
Marketing strategy and click-through rates
Leading an accounting firm is about much more than financial services. Chad offers his two cents about the dreaded sales funnel.
Like many firms, Chad’s experienced his fair share of sales calls where the mismatch is clear from the beginning. Often firms are inclined to view these instances as a signal that their funnel needs tweaking. But instead of adjusting LiveCA’s lead generation strategy to weed out the bad fits mid-funnel, Chad prefers to take the initial call, even if it’s an unlikely match.
“We try not to take an algorithmic approach and allow everyone to contact us,” says Chad. “Then we can push them out warmly to the right people. We find that creates a better experience for our reputation.”
Chad and his team don’t mind the extra communication.
You just never know who’s on the other side of those emails. Your whale with a $20million company could send you a one-liner email.
LiveCA averages seven to eight leads per day but only takes on a few new customers per month. And while the more traditional approach to inbound inquiries may seem counterintuitive, it may be a strategy that reflects the swinging sales pendulum.
“Email selling is dead,” Stuart declares on the podcast. “You cannot sell a single thing through cold email unless it’s a miracle. Nobody reads it. … You can’t hit ‘delete’ quickly enough, right?”
Both Stuart and Chad believe customers are becoming increasingly savvy to digital marketing tactics and joke about clicking on competitors' ads to increase click-through rates.
“Isn’t that a good real-world use case for bots?” laughs Chad.
While it may seem old-fashioned, especially from such a tech-driven accounting firm, the decision not to automate everything may prove to be advantageous for firms like LiveCA.
In the meantime, Chad’s often feeding others’ funnels, referring leads to fellow accounting firms—a practice that isn’t atypical in such a communal and supportive industry.
The collaborative accountant mindset
According to Chad, accounting professionals are almost always willing to share resources, not just potential leads.
His peers’ willingness to support one another, despite being competitors, is one of the things Chad loves most about his profession. And it may be the inspiration behind some of LiveCA’s projects that aren’t designed with profits at the forefront.
Chad recently wrapped up a new development project: a job board for tech-centered accounting firms.
“It’s been up for less than a month. It’s free, and it’ll be free for a long time,” Chad tells Stuart.
He thinks of the project as an experiment to determine whether or not there’s an appetite for a niche hiring platform. “One of the reasons [we put this together is] to see if people believe in the same sort of things around salary, transparency, and choice.” He hopes the project will further bring the industry together.
Just as LiveCA is trying to do its part for accounting firms in the current competitive job market, Chad appreciates his fellow accounting leaders who are also working on projects that benefit the industry.
The collaborative mindset reminds Chad of the early days of cloud accounting when a certain level of camaraderie united the “techiest” of firms. That communal feel has revived itself in the last 6-12 months.
Stuart shares his guess about why this newfound interest in collaborating with the competition has emerged:
“Accountants have copped it left, right, and center during the pandemic. You’ve been therapists, psychologists, accountants, government distributors of funds, late-night crisis counselors, on top of all your normal work. Most haven’t been paid any more to do so. [The experience] is solidifying the industry—it brings peers together.”
Recommended listening: Knowing your purpose, educating, and building communities with Jason Blumer from Thriveal CPA Network
The past and future of accounting
Looking back on the past 10 years, it’s hard for Chad to fathom how much has changed.
He recalls the early days of LiveCA:
“I remember a really great [early] customer with us in Toronto. He had a year's worth of receipts that he needed to scan, so I ordered a Fujitsu scanner [and sent it] to his house. I flew from Halifax to Toronto and stayed there for three days scanning papers.”
He also recalls the evolution of Karbon. As a longtime client, Chad has watched the company grow and is eager to see the projects on Karbon’s horizon following the recent Series B investment from Tidemark.
Stuart’s equally excited to share what’s on deck for the growing company. He spills a few company secrets to Chad, but is saving most for the big reveal at KarbonX this June in Lake Tahoe.