This was another of the thoughts I had during the workshop that followed an E-business for accountants seminar that I attended. (I've already commented on the seminar here and here). One of the workshop leaders was suggesting that accountants should be more prepared to 'upskill' their clients as regards their e-business strategy. I asked whether he
Funny how some topics become topical. A couple of weeks ago I wrote a piece 'Outsourcing - doesn’t have to mean an overseas call centre'. Then last week I noted that a new debate has started on AccountingWeb: “We believe British Accountants can only benefit from growth in outsourcing." For those who don't visit
When you hear someone talking about outsourcing, you probably immediately think about those annoying call centres based overseas. But there is much more to outsourcing than a call centre. Recently I was told about a great piece of business advice: Most people worry about what they're not good at. Don't. Concentrate on what you
These are so important as ambitious professionals need to be good listeners. We have to listen to our clients, our colleagues, our staff, our partners, our suppliers, our prospects and our prospective clients. So here are a number of tips that, if practiced, will ensure that you are seen to be a good listener: Stop
I regularly encourage accountants to ditch their bad clients. There are two primary reasons for this. - Following the Pareto (80/20) principle, you can be sure that your worst clients (however small the number) cause the bulk of the problems and hassle that you suffer. Conversely, 80% of your profits are probably generated by the
Last month I noted some thoughts about detailed fee quotes and bills for professional work. The posting was inspired by the service I had received from my garage. The same is true of today's blog as the garage owner telephoned me yesterday. Why? Just a courtesy call, he said. I know we did a lot of
How many of us really know what our clients think about us? We might assume that clients like us although often when we say that we’re probably focussing more on our favourite clients and assuming that an absence of complaints evidences that clients like us and value the work we are doing. But is that
I was speaking at the LSCA Small Practitioners' 36th annual conference in Cambridge yesterday. The subject matter of my talk was 'How to make more profits from your smaller clients'. I included in the talk a number of items that have appeared in this blog. Others will follow. Also on the programme was the founder
Listening to Professor Richard Susskind speaking after dinner at the APP AGM last week I was struck by the logic of his predictions for the future of professional services. There are lessons here for all ambitious professionals. The Professor, who has long been a highly respected guru as regards the future of the legal profession,
How do you think the majority of your clients would describe you AND how confident are you of that? When I ask people to describe their relationship with their accountant I generally receive variations on only 3 basic answers. That is that the relationship is judged to be Good, bad or indifferent. I would anticipate
Many of us attend meetings of various clubs, societies and professional committees. Invariably someone will have produced an agenda for the meeting. Why? More to the point, why are agendas the exception rather than the rule when accountants are meeting with clients? Agendas are typically prepared so that meetings will be run more efficiently.
Imagine your client collects all their receipts and asks you as their accountant to produce accounts (if required), a tax return and then to advise how much tax is payable. Alternatively the client may collate the information onto a spreadsheet or into a simple accounts package and then ask you the same question. What approach
