What's your 'And'? Yes, we know you're an accountant. But what else are you? What else do you do? What else interests or fascinates you? A new book, written by my friend, John Garrett, explores how sharing your personal passions improves work performance, builds culture, and strengthens relationships with colleagues, clients and
No one has asked me what I do since lockdown started. I've been thinking about how I might reply next time. What about you? What do you do? I think there are 4 standard ways we can answer the question. I know which approach I prefer. What about you? 1 State your
If you’re like most established accountants you probably believe that most of your new clients come from word of mouth and client referrals. Whether or not that’s really the case for you I doubt you have thought about how you could make it easier for your contacts to make good referrals to
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 degree of
Accountants have a distinct advantage over most other service professionals. Your clients need your help on an ongoing basis, at least once a year and often more frequently than this. When we discuss the lifetime value of clients at meetings of The Inner Circle for Accountants we have to consider how long
I wonder if you make an all too common mistake. We all hope that clients will want us to provide a range of services to them. And we hope that clients will recommend and refer us to other prospective clients too... But, as I frequently point out, 'hope' is not a strategy.
During my talks about the future for accountants I sometimes share a famous quote from Bill Gates. Before repeating it here, let me just offer some context. There has long been a tendency to over-hype new ideas and initiatives. Some accountants jump on the bandwagon early which is great. I don’t do
A good few years ago I spent some time researching why so many people assume accountants are boring. I distilled their views down to ten key reasons which it seems I have not shared on this blog previously. So here they are for posterity, in no particular order! Accountancy and auditing seem boring -
Everyone who knows me recognises my enthusiastic nature. When I was younger I may even have been a touch too enthusiastic. I now recognise that it can unnerve those around you if you are evidently more enthusiastic than everyone else. That was an important lesson for me some years back. So now, older and wiser,
This week's blog post is derived from the response I received from a recent attendee at one of my talks. She had been very enthusiastic so I asked her what she had learned specifically. This is her reply: Things I took away from yesterday: That it’s OK to be on the quiet side at networking
I still remember meeting Christopher Higenbottam at a networking event some years ago. I asked what he did and he told me he is an architect. (Indeed it transpired that he was the MD of Tempietto Architects). We talked for a while about his work. After a few minutes I think I asked him whether
I was asked two related questions during a recent interview. This post is drawn from the notes I made before giving my answers on air. 1. With so many businesses competing with each other online, has it become more important to put more personality into your practice? The smaller your practice the more important
I was amused by an email I received out of the blue this week and thought you might find it helpful to learn why. The salient part read: "At [ABC] we understand that social media is becoming more important in running a business than ever before. My name is [XYZ] and I'm reaching out to
How long do you need to spend on social media to build up a decent following, contribute effectively and secure a good level of engagement? I'm not sure much has changed over the years since I started to use social media in 2006. The answers to those questions depend on your reasons for getting involved
During a recent dinner with my old friend, Andy Preston, I got to thinking about how some of the principles he mentioned are more widely applicable. Andy is a sales training and cold calling expert. He speaks at conferences and training courses for very large companies all over the world. Our dinner took place in Cape
Years ago I became quite attached to the idea of identifying UPBs (Unique Perceived Benefits). I preferred this approach of looking at the provision of services from the client's viewpoint rather than trying to identify a USP (Unique Selling Proposition). More recently though I have realised that it is all but impossible for any
Popular business card games include the perennial classics: 'How many can I give out in one night?' And 'How many can I collect?' But what do you really win if you play these games? I'd suggest you are not so much a winner, more of a loser. Sorry to be harsh but if that's how
If you are on Linkedin you will get connection requests from people you don't know. And you will also get plenty of bland connection requests from people you're not sure whether or not you know. It's very tempting to treat such connection requests in the same way as other unsolicited messages. But that would be
It's all to easy to assume that all clients want the same things. But unless you ask, you won't know for sure. It's probably true that most clients want their accountants to help them pay less tax and to keep them straight with the authorities. Probably true. For most. But these may not be the
During the course of my career I have attended hundreds of events where professionals and business people could network. More recently, since I went freelance in 2006, I have also attended many more generic and local business networking events. These are very different and are more likely to attract some inexperienced networkers whose prime
It is generally accepted these days that you will benefit more from advertising, marketing, networking and referrals if you focus on a recognisable niche. Let everyone else continue trying to be all things to all people. But, if you are like most accountants in practice you don't think you have a specialist focus. You
Am presenting a talk next week on how to deal with difficult clients. One of the points I'll address and which I haven't previously written about on this blog is the importance of demonstrating good listening skills. Here's just a few of the ways you can do this, especially when a client (or indeed
A sole practitioner accountant recently asked me how could he attract the 'bigger fish'? In effect he wanted to know how he could start to attract and win clients who would be prepared to pay bigger fees. He said he wants to more than double his average fee - moving from around £600 upto
'Finders' generate leads for new business from new sources.They go out and create opportunities to talk with prospective clients about problems they can solve.They don't wait for the phone to ring; they go out and find business. If their firm is of a certain size they may be required to generate work not just for
An article in the Guardian today includes reference to research conducted by Which? magazine which shows that a third of people think they receive poor service from their solicitor. A quarter of those surveyed think their solicitor doesn't listen to their opinion, and a third don't feel they are told enough about how much they
