Reflecting on Five Years in Business: Key Lessons from Juna

Operating any business for five years is certainly a milestone. And for the team here at Juna, reaching the five-year mark wouldn’t have been possible without the talents of our team and, especially, the trust of our valued clients. Along the way, we’ve developed strategies that we think enhance our collective success.

As we reflect on our journey, we’ve gained a lot of insights. From being laser-focused on specific industries to hiring a smart and efficient staff, we think we have the makings of a recipe for success. We wanted to share 9 lessons learned that may be helpful in your own business journey.

1. Maintain a strong industry focus

When we first started, we insisted that we would be industry agnostic. We thought we could serve an array of industries effectively. But along the way,  we learned that it’s better to specialize. We now specialize in clients in tech, life sciences, professional services and nonprofits. Industry specialization means knowing  what the key performance indicators (KPIs) are, what’s the best software to use, and how to scale processes. We are in a better position to offer insights to our clients. Jeff Zobrist, a vice president at Siemens Digital Industries Software, summed up the value of specialization nicely in a blog post: “Specialization helps build confidence and trust to sustain lifetime customer value.” We couldn’t agree more.

2. Be ridiculously picky when hiring

It’s a tight labor market, especially in the accounting field. According to The Wall Street Journal, filings for initial unemployment benefits in October reached its lowest level since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. So, without a doubt, it may take longer to find the right person. Just how do you find the right person? We think it has to do with offering  a unique culture where collaboration is the norm, achievements are celebrated, and contributions are valued. It’s not unusual for us to conduct four interviews with one job candidate as we need to ensure that they’re a good fit for our team and vice versa. Ultimately, being selective in your hiring will pay dividends. When we think of our own staff, we can say with confidence that we’d hire every one of our team members again.

3. Develop—and nurture— company culture

In a remote environment, company culture may sometimes suffer. But if you really strive to make employees feel valued, it can happen. At Juna, we put an emphasis on having fun and staying connected to each other. A study published in The Journal of Vocational Behavior supports this mindset. “From a practical perspective, our results highlight the benefits of creating and maintaining a fun workplace for promoting informal learning,” the study notes. For us, it also fosters a sense of belonging and connectedness. While we understand you need to be serious about your work, that doesn’t mean you lose your humanity or your sense of fun. Juna co-founder and partner Jean Zick puts it this way: “We’re building the company we want to work for.”

4. Limit Your Client Base

Just as we noted the importance of specializing (see #1), it is equally important to  take on clients  that you can help advance and that you enjoy working with. The short advice: Don’t take every potential client that knocks on your door. Be patient and provide the clients you have with exceptional service.

5. Procedures, procedures, procedures

Every company needs to establish time-tested procedures such as quality control and scalability. In doing so, you will reduce  human error and find that it’s easier to train new team members. Sara Brown penned a really thoughtful piece on MIT’s Sloan School of Management website about improving workplace processes. The eight tips presented are really helpful to us and any business getting their footing.

6. Conduct Engaging Team Meetings

At Juna, we use team meetings as an opportunity to foster a collaborative environment. They’re productive but—here’s that word again – fun. Fun, in this context, presents learning opportunities. For instance, we take turns offering “Tips & tricks” in the accounting field, which is a great way to share best practices. We also solicit feedback from the team, offer transparency, and encourage everyone to contribute.  We learn from each other no matter our role – associate, controller, or partner.

7. Outsource what’s not in your wheelhouse

Outsourcing our HR, IT, and recruiting functions offers three distinct benefits: it lets us focus on our core business;  the outsourced services can grow as we grow; and  we don’t have to worry about hiring internally and supervising people. It’s important to build out the company infrastructure early on. Outsource in the beginning and add people in those roles later if it makes sense.

8. Hire an admin!

This is, hands down, the best decision we ever made! We didn’t realize how much time we were spending on administrative, non-client time until we hired an administrative assistant. As this piece in HR Gazette states, “A good administrative assistant can dramatically improve the productivity of your top employees by allowing them to focus more on their area of specialty and less on the administrative tasks that distract them.”

9. Be direct & honest

Any company is bound to have hiccups or internal challenges during the course of a year (or five!). To address these challenges, it benefits companies to discuss pending issues with clients openly and honestly. Entrepreneur magazine highlights this practice in this valuable piece. Customer service is paramount and companies need to practice this regularly.

These tips have served us well over our first five years, and we hope that they help you, too, in your business ventures.