Strategy Archives - Book Mark Lee

Do you recognise these 9 types of commentator on the accountancy profession?

By Mark Lee|2019-05-21T08:47:43+00:00May 21st, 2019|Accountants, Future, Strategy|

If you've been following me for a while you'll know I like to debunk the hype around many issues addressed by other commentators. Sometimes they are right on the money but often they are way off the mark - and this can be for any of a number of reasons. Are you

Solving your recruitment and resourcing challenges

By Mark Lee|2019-04-16T10:31:13+00:00April 16th, 2019|Accountants, Future, Outsourcing, Productivity, Recruitment, Servicing clients, Sole practitioners, Strategy|

The biggest issue facing accountants in practice these days isn't the rise of robo-accountants, AI or cloud computing. The challenge that seems to hold many firms back is the same old chestnut it's always been. It's the difficulty in finding good people to join the firm. Almost every week I get approached by the

What can you do about all the competition from other accountants?

By Mark Lee|2019-01-21T09:20:41+00:00January 22nd, 2019|Accountants, Business messaging and branding, Linkedin, Marketing and promotion, STANDING OUT, Strategy, Websites|

One of the accountants I spoke with recently has been struggling for over three years to build their own practice. Although they had won a fair few clients in year one, some have since moved on. The accountant feels their service is good enough and that their fees were not excessive. They

The 3 strategic questions you need to answer as we start 2019

By Mark Lee|2019-01-02T08:45:21+00:00January 2nd, 2019|Accountants, Business advice, Productivity, Strategy|

As the New Year starts I invite you to identify your top business achievements in 2018 and a few specific achievements you would most like to pursue in 2019. It's all too easy to dwell on stuff that's not gone as we would have liked. For example, if you still have dozens of clients' personal

What’s the best way for an accountant to win new clients?

By Mark Lee|2019-01-15T09:16:02+00:00September 11th, 2018|Accountants, Business messaging and branding, Experience and expertise, Marketing and promotion, Social Media, Sole practitioners, STANDING OUT, Strategy|

Many of the accountants I speak with ask me the same question. How can they best attract new clients? I will rarely offer advice however until I have found out enough about the accountant, their firm, their services, their likes and dislikes and what they have tried previously. The simple reason is

Debunked: Instead of growing your practice, help it to evolve

By Mark Lee|2018-09-03T10:51:32+00:00September 4th, 2018|Accountants, Future, Sole practitioners, Strategy|

There is an old adage that says if your practice fails to grow it will stagnate. Is that true actually? I think, it depends on what one means by ‘grow’. Grow the client base? Turnover? Profits? Range of services? Efficiency? I prefer the word 'evolve' as I'll explain below. Many years ago

Are you sufficiently comfortable with your practice?

By Mark Lee|2018-11-01T17:20:09+00:00October 21st, 2014|Accountants, Mentoring, Strategy|

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