What is wrong with your accountancy practice – part 5 of 5

What is wrong with your accountancy practice – part 5 of 5

This is the fifth in a series of 5 blogs where I’m going to focus on what I consider the 5 key areas where accountants make mistakes which have a significant negative impact on their practice.

How do I know what these problems are?

Because I have faced them in my practice.

But by tackling them head on and overcoming them I’ve seen massive gains.

These problems hold accountants back, stifle development of their businesses, mean they don’t earn enough, work too many hours and don’t spend enough time doing the activities they enjoy with the people they care about.

That could be simple things like walking the dog, having lunch mid-week with their partner, picking the kids up from school, taking a day off when they ‘feel like it’.

Or bigger goals – paying the mortgage off in 5 years, taking six weeks holiday every year or buying a holiday home in the south of France.

Running your own accountancy practice means you have the perfect opportunity to achieve these goals and much more.

But first you need to get your accountancy practice running the way you want it too.

 

Problem number five– you don’t have the right team

Final point but the most important one if you want to grow and improve your practice.

For a long time, I was resistant to having any team members. I had worked in big businesses before I started my practice and had been responsible for teams of up to 30 people. This was draining in itself; it often felt like having 30 children!

 

Doing everything myself

For too long I worked on my own, doing everything all the time; all the admin, bookkeeping, payroll, vat, accounts and tax returns. About 2 years after starting I was flat out and not enjoying it, I felt there was a lot of work I shouldn’t be doing. Eventually I took on a bookkeeper.

This was great, but again I became swamped and the holiday in July 2017; which I’ve already mentioned where I had to work 3 days, was the trigger to one of my biggest and best business decisions which was to outsource.

 

Reluctant to outsource

Originally, I’d been reluctant to outsource, the scare stories about poor quality and lack of communication had scared me off. It was while having lunch with a group of accountants that the subject of outsourcing came up, I was told how it had worked well for some of them and I decided to give it a go.

The first outsourcer I tried was okay, quality of work was good, but the communication was poor.

The second was too arrogant to try and work in a mutually beneficial way; it was their way or no way. This one never got off the ground.

 

Gold!

The third attempt I struck gold.

I initially started with year-end accounts preparation to draft accounts stage. This went very well and 2 months later I also outsourced payroll.

I am now in a position where accounts preparation, payroll, bookkeeping and vat work is all outsourced.

This has freed up a huge amount of time. I now have time to speak to clients properly, to find out what they really want to achieve and work with them to get there.

I’m able to plan and review work properly. I spend time constantly reviewing the ways we work (systems and processes) to make improvements in our efficiencies and the services we provide to business owners.

 

Improving the value of our services

Around 50% of my time is now spent on working on the business rather than in it. This time has been created for me by having a great support team, the great work they do has given me the time to spend on improving the value of the services we provide to clients.

 

If you’re ready to start or are already running your own accountancy practice, here are 5 ways I can help you run the practice you want, the way you want:

1.      Get in touch and arrange a free 30-minute discovery call.

2.      Read my e-book about how I transformed my practice.

3.      Attend one of our free Mastermind Events.

4.      Join one of our Mastermind Groups.

5.      Work with me on a 1-2-1 basis.