Why Shopify accountants

After a few years working as a spreadsheet jockey whose job was to figure out clever ways to save taxes and make investors a lot of money, intermingled with teaching other accountants a little bit, I realised that my true calling is actually to create jobs and empower entrepreneurs.

And so the journey of the accountant obsessed with entrepreneurship and marketing took a different turn. During this process, Yvonne and I started building out some of our online business ideas on Shopify. We did some research on different marketplaces and platforms on which to launch online businesses without huge venture funding, and found that Shopify is far better than the rest. 

I realised that there exists this huge community of over 1 million merchants whose economic activity generated more than $183 billion between 2016 and 2018, and that Shopify businesses created and supported more than 1.4 million full-time jobs during this period. For some more findings, have a look at Shopify’s global impact report. 

After successfully overcoming a major illness, we left our corporate jobs (of which we were technically founders) as we were really simply working for large corporate investors and we felt that we were not making the impact we wanted to make. We sold our shares, moved to Europe, and started CronosNow, alongside partnering with a few small Shopify startups and online ventures.

As a Shopify entrepreneur, you are probably well aware of the great opportunity which Shopify presents to the small guy, the startup, the David against the Goliath – you and I bringing our products to a global consumer base, standing against the corporate Goliaths.

Shopify is an exciting and continuously growing platform that makes it possible to increase exponentially the value you create within the global marketplace. Yes, it is tough, especially learning how to market and find customers. It’s not easy for any of us – just ask me, the accountant trying to learn digital marketing – but once you get used to some “humble” pie and invest the time needed to learn the science of online marketing, it is worth it! 

In a world where unemployment is increasing, and machines and computers are replacing people, e-commerce platforms like Shopify present a tangible option for income generation and a means of providing for your families and, for some of you, even a way to create an empire.

Yvonne and I love creating value, helping others, and building businesses. The primary skill needed to set up your online business is knowing how to generate leads and potential clients – we are still figuring that out, and we feel your pain. So we asked ourselves “how can we add value to this ecosystem?”. Well, we are exceptionally good at accounting, finance, systems and overall business strategy, so we thought we would create value in that area, and that is what CronosNow is all about.

We love Shopify, we are Shopify entrepreneurs, and by focusing on supporting other Shopify entrepreneurs by being the best Shopify accountants out there, we find fulfilment and meaning in our work.

Being Shopify accounting experts creates value not only for us, but also for our clients. Our focus on just one e-commerce ecosystem allows us to do our jobs more quickly and at a better quality than that of our competitors, saving our clients both time and money.

Shopify is definitely not the only e-commerce platform around – we tried and tested quite a few including 3dcart, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento, and Square, amongst others. After creating detailed reviews, we found that each has its own pros and cons, but in the end we went with Shopify due to its much larger community of merchants, which presents an increased opportunity for us to build our specialist accounting practice.

We also realised that the level of app integration between Xero and Shopify is far superior to that of other e-commerce platform integration. So, we decided to focus on this specific platform, and our deep understanding of it has allowed us to build better system automation. This, in turn, has enabled us to save our clients money and perform better as accountants than if we were run-of-the-mill generalist accountants.

Absolutely not! The entrepreneurial spirit is at its most creative in the world of Shopify. We love working with creators of custom furniture as much as we do with print-on-demand customers. We work with a range of clients, from digital content creators to dropshippers – all of which are exciting businesses that see opportunity in the market and hustle to make things happen.

Each of these different types of businesses require a different approach to designing accounting systems that are efficient, accurate, scalable and, most of all, useful to the owner. If you think of accounting reports are needed just to submit VAT and income tax returns, you will love working with us! We are fascinated by different business models and invest in our clients by taking the time to understand each individual’s needs, personal accounting, and systems expertise, as well as their goals and priorities. We love learning from our customers and are honoured to play a part in your success story.

In short, absolutely! My latest Shopify side project (AmazingAfrica, see below for link) also has an Etsy store, and we plan on listing our products on Amazon Handmade,  while keeping our focus on Shopify so that we can have a higher level of control over our retail customer experience. And, of course, we pay less for transaction fees with Shopify – we are still accountants, after all!

Many of our clients sell their products on marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay or Etsy. The clients to whose businesses we can add the greatest value are those that have such platforms as secondary sales channels, with Shopify acting as their primary sales channel. We utilise a number of fantastic tools and methods to centralise all reporting, inventory and accounting irrespective of which channel they come from, all the while avoiding manual data-capturing. This allows us to combine all sales data neatly in Xero so we can give you all the information you need in one place, as you need it!

In summary, we:

• Aim to create meaning in our lives through our work by helping to create jobs
  
• Strive to add exponential value to our clients’ businesses
  
• Endeavour to work with a wide variety of customers and business types
  
• Aspire to be the leader in our area of specialisation and expertise
  
• Undertake to support our families through this venture
  

We believe this enterprise is a win-win, but only if we keep learning more and improving our work for the benefit of our customers and the e-commerce community as a whole. 

P.S. Here are links to Yvonne and Richard’s latest side projects on Shopify (although we are excellent accountants, we are still learning the intricacies of Shopify, and have great respect for all designers and marketers who have mastered this platform)

Yvonne’s ‘side-hustle’ – www.iwanttoneed.com
Richard’s ‘side-hustle’ – www.amazingafrica.online