How Eye on Books became platinum #1: The scotch-fuelled white lie comes good
When Charles Klvana, founder of Eye on Books, offered to lend his perspective on his journey towards achieving platinum partner status, we jumped at the chance.
In this ten-part series, Charles takes us all down memory lane and throws in some great advice for potential partners looking to follow in similar footsteps.
We start this series with Charles and his client talking about Xero over a double scotch and coke – in the early days before Charles knew much about Xero.
Where it all started
Date: September 2010
Client count: 40 clients. None on Xero.
“Yes, of course, we know Xero. If you’re using it, we help you with it.”
At least, that’s what I told a potential client back then. I’d heard of Xero in passing months earlier and it looked like a great idea. The fact I was drinking a double scotch and coke with this client may have had something to do with my bravado.
The truth was, at this early stage Xero lacked a lot of Australian bank feeds, which meant I hadn’t been ready to jump into it.
So while I certainly “knew” Xero, I knew I could help this potential client. My interest in Xero was piqued because not being able to help a client wasn’t something I was comfortable with.
In October we landed the client. Suddenly actually knowing Xero became important.
Eye on Books joins Xero
I noticed that Xero had a stand at the ABN conference held on the Gold Coast that same year.
I made it my mission learn about this new kind of accounting software, where everything was on the cloud via a web browser, with nothing on the computer. Soon after dropping an Eye on Books card in Xero’s bowl, I had an email from them: Welcome as a Xero bookkeeping partner. You get a free version of Xero!
Well, that was nifty, I thought. Now I’m a partner and I get a free version. These Xero guys seem pretty cool.
Later that night, I met Wayne, the Xero Australia general manager at the time, and Sally Schmidt. They opened my eyes to what Xero was all about, and the great culture Xero was building in Australia.
By November 2010, now freshly armed with my Xero partner account, we added a second client to Xero. A MYOB convert.
Our three staff members who were then working at Eye on Books planned to make a late night of this conversion process. Munching on pizza, we followed the step-by-step guide on converting from MYOB to Xero.
Four hours later, we had done our first conversion from MYOB to Xero. All seemed well. The pizza was good too.
Stay tuned for next week’s installment: Making inroads and learning lessons
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Source: Xero Blog
