It occurs to me that some accountants keen to do more advisory work might find it easier if they change their mindset. I suggest that the first and primary way to develop the advisory side of your practice is to be clear as to why you want to do it. If your
In my experience many accountants have more potential to succeed than they themselves believe. They are better accountants than they are prepared to admit. And they deserve to be more successful than they have so far managed to be. Could this be true of you too? Equally there are plenty of accountants
Not everyone wants to follow the widely promoted advice that you will benefit more from advertising, marketing, networking and referrals if you focus your attention on trying to reach a specific group of people. The idea being that we can then let everyone else continue trying to be all things to all
What do you really need to sell as an accountant? This is a simple enough question, and knowing the right answer could make a profound difference to the success of your practice. Let’s start with what you’re NOT selling. As I explained in a 2018 blog post, You are NOT selling your time.
Do you consider yourself to be a confident person generally? What about in terms of your ability to attract and win over prospective clients? And to keep clients happy and willing to pay you the fees you deserve for the work you do? Whilst many accountants I work with have a fair
Too many accountants struggle to distinguish themselves from their competition. This is a shame as it is what makes each of us different that makes us memorable and the reason why we are referred and recommended. And then why we are engaged by clients. Challenge this if you must. Tell me that
These days it typically takes a lot to get me cross. But one thing that really winds me up is the continuing wave of advice to accountants generally, telling them to do stuff that doesn't work for everyone and is especially inappropriate for most sole practitioners. This is quite different from the advice that
No doubt some accountants found January 2021 was worse then previous years, some will consider it about the same and some will have found it less pressured than previously. The one thing that most accountants will agree on is that, regardless of the impact of the pandemic, some clients are beyond help. Previously
I was delighted (in November 2104) to be invited onto Margo Manning's radio show: The Business Hour on HCR. [Edited: Sept 2016: Sadly the recording is no longer available]. Margo started by asking me to comment on a couple of news related issues. We then moved onto talking about how businesses, business owners and professional
The ICAEW recently published some research showing that almost 40% of small businesses have no desire to grow bigger. Less than a quarter it seems want to grow more than a little. This comes as no surprise to me and accords with the view I have long had that the vast majority of accountants themselves
Most accountants build up their technical competence and experience over a number of years, often also while studying and taking exams. In some professions the exams and studies endeavour to address related business and personal skills. These are invariably almost as important as the technical skills. There are some notable exceptions - such as
Not everyone likes seeing trite quotes that purport to inspire us to motivate us. Actually I do like them - in moderation. I'm not a fan of a quote a day, though I do have two calendars that offer me this option. If only I remembered to move them on every day.... For now here
I recently watched an old video clip of the professional services firm guru, David Maister, in which he highlights the six most scarce resources in most professional service firms: Energy Excitement Enthusiasm Determination Passion Ambition David also points out that his research has proved that the top achieving firms are those that energise, excite and enthuse
Do you recognise the following quote? "Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping
It has been said that personal development in a professional environment is largely a matter of common sense. Employers will spend a fortune in an effort to ensure that ambitious professionals keep upto date with technical developments. But when it comes to maximising the professionals' potential to do their job, to progress and to get
I saw a delightful definition the other day: All too often the reason managers struggle is because they are responsible for a whole gang of people that they probably didn’t pick, may not like, might have nothing in common with and who perhaps don’t like them much. Given how often this is what ambitious professionals
What’s your answer to that question? What about this one? Do you want more GOOD clients? And this one? Do you want less frustration from your smaller clients? Most ambitious professionals would answer ‘yes’ to all 3 questions. That then leads onto the key question, which is: “So what are you going to do about
A friend of mine, Stephen Harvard Davis is recognised as the UK’s leading authority on job transition and retaining top talent, He is the author of “Why do 40% of Executives Fail?” The following observations were inspired by an item on Stephen’s blog in which he addressed the retention issues relevant to top executives in
Mentoring seems to be flavour of the month all of a sudden. I was approached today by a journalist who wanted a quote from someone with experience of the traditional internal style of mentoring that some larger firms provide. Here's what I said: ” As a junior partner many years ago I was allocated
Whilst exam training focuses on developing technical skills most firms need managers and partners who also have a broad mix of business skills. As promotion is likely to depend upon such skills there are essentially only four options available to your firm. They will either: pray, hope or make a wish that you magically
In a previous blog I referred to the classical categorisation of professionals: Finders - who go out and find the new work Minders - who look after the relationship with the clients Grinders - who do the work Binders - who keep the team working well together It seems to me that most CPD is
Accountancy magazine (July 2006) ran an article "Coaching: the new religion" written by Wilf Altman. In it he suggested that 'leading firms of accountants are surprisingly coy about coaching.' In my experience however all of the largest firms run partner development programs and most of these include a form of coaching or mentoring. I agree
I was a guest of Taxation magazine at their Annual Taxation awards ceremony last night. Big black-tie event at the Park Lane Hilton hotel. Met loads of people who had said they’d received my recent email newsletters and that they had not ‘removed’ themselves from my mailing list. Phew! Sat next to a really nice
