This week I invite you to identify your top achievements in 2017 and a few specific achievements you would most like to pursue in 2018. This should help you finish the year on a high and excited for what is to follow. I've also shared my own answers to the same two questions. Doing this yourself also means
Duncan Brodie is a former Finance Director who helps accountants build successful careers. I've known him a while and feel his views are worth sharing here. Duncan's views will be especially helpful to you if you are nearly or recently qualified. As he explains: Once upon a time a professional accounting qualification almost guaranteed that
When I was first in practice the normal practice for accountants was to issue invoices after doing the work and then to provide clients with a further 30 days (or more) credit. I now encourage my sole practitioner clients to move away from this historic approach. One sole practitioner accountant recently told me that,
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Press Release Renowned accountants' mentor and commentator, Mark Lee, has teamed up with a Tokyo University for what he is calling an outsourcing knowledge experiment. This new service is quite distinct from Microsoft's recently announced holoportation which uses different technology. Using a simpler Japanese originated smartphone app, accountants will be able to have a hologram
It's not often that you see a huge supplier to your business sector subliminally promoting you. Maybe that's stretching the facts but I was amused to see a recent post on the Sage One blog titled: TrustMark. TrustMark is a Government backed quality scheme that is intended to signpost people to reputable local firms and
I tried to do something different this year. Like many others I stopped sending cards to everyone a while back. These days cards sent with a personal message can STAND OUT positively as they are now much less common than once was the case. Some cards and messages specifically STAND OUT. I remember one
I was intrigued by elements of the Accountancy Rich List 2015 published by economia magazine. The magazine itself, as distinct from the online list, contains pen portraits of ten of those on the list, described as "inspiring entrepreneurial chartered accountants". In each case a sentence or quote has been given explaining 'How he made it".
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
I was saddened but unsurprised by the news that Moore Stephens and Chantrey Vellacott are to merge with effect from 1 May 2015. I originally trained at a predecessor firm of Chantry Vellacott and the current managing partner, Mike Tovey, was my manager when I qualified as a chartered accountant in 1982. The name of
At this week's meeting of the Inner Circle, members shared their approach to pricing 6 specific client situations. A variety of distinct entrepreneurial approaches became apparent during the round-table discussion. In a clear sign of the times, none of the members referenced time-based fees or timesheets. Most members quoted monthly fee rates, or annual fees
This will be the third time I have posted an annual review of my website and blog stats. It’s as much for posterity as it is for those who may be interested in such things. The 2013 review can be found here>>> Once again, visitor numbers and blog posts read are all significantly up on
In my last email newsletter of the year I promised to post here a summary of my highlights and what I have achieved and shared in 2014. January - Started researching and planning the launch of what became The Inner Circle for Accountants February - Appointed Treasurer of The Magic Circle. Very proud. Have been
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
If this blog was a redtop newspaper the headline might have read: “Tax Barrister blows the lid off Tax Schemes scam”. I admit I was tempted! Regular readers will know that only very occasionally do I use this blog to reference tax related topics. When I do so my observations are still focused around helping
When I started The Inner Circle 6 months ago I could only speculate that members would benefit and find it of value. That was confirmed again this week after our 6th meeting. Members explained why they had joined. There seem to be five explicit reasons which keep them coming back month after month: To learn
This blog normally contains advice and insights to help readers. Every now and then I use it to share something more personal – for example, so that I have a record of related stats. This time I am answering a question I am often asked: “What are you doing now?” Since 2006 I have pursued a
The main topic for discussion at last month's meeting of The Inner Circle was: How do you get the right staff and support for your practice? The topic had been raised during a number of the conversations I had with members after the previous meeting. Not all have staff however. We met at The Eight Club
One of the advantages of attending Accountex for me is to be able to catch up with interesting developments I may have missed. One such was a white paper issued by Intuit at the end of 2013 on The Changing role of Accountancy. Subtitled - The Strategic Accountant: A Case for the Cloud. It's well
Well over a hundred accountants responded to a recent short survey in which I invited them to summarise their biggest challenge using Linkedin back in 2014. Following the survey I arranged a webinar for accountants which I ran with Mark Perl. Almost 100 accountants were online. Feedback both during and afterwards was very positive. Mark
I received a tweeted message from ‘twopcharts London’ on 6 July notifying me that it was the 6th anniversary of the day I joined twitter. This led me to check out ‘twopcharts‘ which was where the message originated. Despite my continued ambivalence about the business benefits of twitter I continue to be an active and
A trainee accountant I know had just heard that I'd been speaking about Linkedin at an accountancy firm's away day. He was amazed that a firm would need this as, in his words, "Linkedin is just like Facebook isn't it?" This is a common misconception, fuelled in part by surveys and articles that reference Linkedin
At last week's annual Taxation Awards event I found myself chatting with someone who used to promote tax avoidance schemes. What he had to say was well worth sharing with readers of my blog. First though let me offer some background. I want to provide enough details to justify why what Mr X had to say
This was the main topic for discussion at yesterday's meeting of The Inner Circle for Accountants. I have summarised below some of the key issues members addressed. We met at The Eight Club in Moorgate, London and Members again benefited from the sharing of knowledge and insights around the table. Inevitably we strayed onto related
The inaugural meeting of The Inner Circle for Accountants was evidently a success last week. I have summarised below some of the key takeaways. We met at Soho House in London and Members clearly valued the mix of shared peer-led insights together with, as one said, "the independent common sense you always get from Mark
