Tentho, a fast-growing South Florida accounting firm, relies on Adele, a chief of staff from Chiefly Consultants, to manage and implement critical technology for the business.
Key takeaways:
- Tentho is an accounting firm and South Florida’s second fastest-growing business
- Chiefly Consultants co-founder, Adele Blair, has been instrumental in helping Tentho leverage technology to improve processes
- Adele is efficient, highly organized, and has an ability to assess personalities
Tentho is a fast-growing accounting firm that has worked with Chiefly Consultants co-founder, Adele Blair,for a long time and has become a Chiefly Consultants success story. Co-founder, Giuseppe Salamone, recently discussed how much Adele has helped his business become more efficient and harness technology.
Who is Tentho?
Tentho is an accounting firm that serves small and midsize businesses in 35 states around the country. Tentho considers itself “industry agnostic” – they work with all industries to provide accounting services. They work with everyone from solopreneurs to multi-million-dollar companies, taking on full day-to-day accounting, CFO services, and financial operations.
Giuseppe started Tentho five years ago, after working in the accounting industry since he was 18. He now has over twenty years under his belt and previously was a financial controller for a $65 million healthcare center in Florida.
Giuseppe scaled Tentho quickly – in just four years, the company went from just one employee to over 30. This is why Tentho is the second-fastest-growing company in South Florida.
How does Tentho work with Chiefly Consultants?
Giuseppe was introduced to Adele through a mutual contact, and he helped her with some accounting. He learned more about what she did and decided to utilize her services for a big project at Tentho. She helped the company implement a CRM technology they had already purchased to support their operations.
Adele helped Tentho take advantage of automation with this technology. They have hundreds of clients, all with 10 to 15 monthly tasks that must be completed, equaling thousands of monthly tasks for the team.
Tentho faced a problem because staff members couldn’t track of whether they had completed a task for every client. Additionally, Giuseppe had no way to track whether staff was completing everything that needed to be done. It was hard to meet specific deliverable requirements for all their clients. Everything became more challenging as the business kept growing. They needed a better system to confirm that work was getting done.
Adele helped the team leverage technology and automate everything, including setting up notifications for these recurring monthly tasks. Staff now receive a notification when something hasn’t been done yet, and they can check it off in the system when it’s completed. Giuseppe then gets notified that something is done.
This new system allows the team to track required deliverables and create a solid accountability system.
How has Adele been instrumental in Tentho’s efficiency?
Adele took the lead on this technology implementation project. She has been instrumental in streamlining workflows for the team. There’s still a lot of ongoing maintenance and development that she handles to keep things running smoothly.
She also communicates with the software vendor on behalf of the internal team, so there’s never any discrepancy between what’s provided and what the business needs. She acts as the intermediary so there are never any breakdowns in communication.
Adele does not act as a typical chief of staff for Tentho since they have their own internal HR department. She works with everyone on the team to ensure success but she is more of a data manager or chief technology officer for Tentho. Still, she is a right-hand person for Giuseppe, whom he knows he can turn to with questions about the technology or managing the tech for the entire team. He relies on her and trusts her to accomplish whatever needs to be done with her expertise.
Giuseppe knows that when he gives Adele a project and tells her what he needs, she will move forward and get it done correctly.
What skills are needed for this kind of role?
Chiefs of staff like Adele need to be flexible and ready for whatever comes next. This is especially important when working with a company like Tentho, where Giuseppe says he’s always working on something different. He wants to be constantly challenged, and he doesn’t like repetition.
Chiefs of staff also need to be highly organized, efficient, and intuitive. They need to understand the needs of the business and have a keen ability to pick up on different personality types. For Giuseppe, he appreciates that Adele knows him and how he operates so well that she can anticipate his reaction. This way, he can trust that she’s handling it best for the business. He can look at a proposal or project, approve it, and move on.
Giuseppe also thinks it’s important not to have a “yes man” around all the time. Adele can put everything on the table and be honest with him if something should be handled another way. Open lines of communication are critical for these relationships to succeed.
Outsourcing to an expert like Adele means taking advantage of that expertise and efficiency. Otherwise, businesses would keep running into the same problems. Companies should be receptive to change to keep improving. They hire a professional for their expertise and skills, not to keep doing something the same way they’ve always done it.
How is Tentho different from other accounting firms?
Giuseppe has experience working as a teacher, so he brought his focus on education to Tentho. He has a strong interest in making sure members achieve their goals. Tentho staff members ensure clients understand what they’re looking at and what they need to do to be successful business owners.
Another differentiator for Tentho is its emphasis on technology. The team helps members leverage the right tech tools to make their accounting systems more efficient.
Tentho’s mission is to prepare businesses for their launch. Giuseppe wants to help companies reach the next phase, whether that be growth or taking on a new piece of the market. He would advise small business owners to focus on the core of the business, driving revenue and growth, and delegate anything else to other staff members or third parties, like Chiefly Consultants.
Contact Chiefly Consultants today
Ready to see results like Tentho? Learn more about how the chiefs of staff from Chiefly Consultants can be a game-changer for your business. Contact us today.
1 Comment
Asia Gelker
Adele you are incredible! Thanks for everything you do!