Take the first step

Richard Brewin • April 16, 2021

Take the first step

We live in a time of change and, as accountants, the need to change is constantly on our agendas. 


Change our systems. 


Change our services. 


Change our client engagements.


Change our focus.


Change our image.


Working with accountants, sometimes it is the sheer enormity of change that is the barrier to progress. Sit down with a firm’s directors and it doesn’t take long to come up with a long list of the things that ‘need’ to change within the firm, either because the directors say so, or the team, or the clients or, often, because they’ve been told that it is a change that all accounting firms need to make.


“You need to be more systemised”


“You need to be more client-focused”


“You need to be more efficient”


“You need to be doing more advisory”


The length of the list inevitably brings the question of “where to start”. There’s your barrier.


My tip is this:


Step 1


 Go back to that list and mark up each entry as one of three categories:


  1. Must do – the things that are fundamental to the survival/progress of the firm


  1. Nice to do – more ‘wish list’ than ‘to do’ list


  1. Just do it – the simple fixes that have just sat around for ever.



Step 2


Take all those in 3, your JDI list, and distribute them out around the firm. Just get them done. If there’s only you then work your way down, what at a time, daily or weekly, until you’re at the bottom.



Step 3


Take all those in 2, your wish list, and park them, for now. We can return to these once progress has been made with those in list 1.



Step 4


Step 4 is done in conjunction with Step 2. This is the hard one because these are the things you are losing sleep over, so take a breath and….


Pick one!


Any one…and just do it. 


It really doesn’t matter which because trying to decide this is almost certainly where your barrier has been built up. Taking one step in the right direction in any of these is better than procrastinating over which you should choose.


One step forward is progress and will lead to a second, and a third…..


Good luck.

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Accountants selling to their clients is a topic as old as the profession itself. I regularly hear criticism from those looking to monetise the accountants’ relationships with their clients that “accountants can’t sell”. I also come across an attitude within the profession that “accountants shouldn’t sell to their clients…it’s unprofessional…it’s not what my clients expect”.  Let’s tackle the issue.

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By Richard Brewin • February 11, 2025
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