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The hidden threat to every accounting firm

Richard Brewin • March 16, 2020
Ask an accountant what the biggest threat is to their firm and the answers come pouring out:
  • Digital disruption
  • Tech companies
  • Changing client needs
  • Online competition
  • Pressure on profits/cash flow
  • Skills shortage
  • Red tape/legislation
  • Not enough resources
  • No succession plan
I could go on. All are relevant and all are challenges across our profession. We deal with them all on a daily basis when working with professional firms.
However, the greatest threat is rarely mentioned until I take the conversation to a deeper level, even though it may be obvious to someone on the outside.

Motivation, or rather the lack of it, for the principal.

We all understand that a business without direction, drive, focus and energy is going to struggle. Knowing it is one thing but maintaining your motivation in the face of all of the challenges above, and the many more that directors and partners face on a daily basis, can be a seemingly insurmountable challenge. The motivation just seeps away over time.

If you are to be happy, and your firm to be successful, then you have to find ways to recover and maintain your motivation. Here’s my quick guide:

  1. Remind yourself of why you are doing this. What are the deep seated drivers at the heart of your ‘need’ for success. Family? Legacy? Community? Making a difference?
  2. Have your business reflect your ‘why’. Tangibly, with photos, wall-mounted statements, desk models etc and intangibly by embedding it into your culture.
  3. Engage your team and your clients into your drivers, your ‘why’. The more your team and clients reflect what’s really important to you then the better you will understand each other and work closer together.
  4. Set goals that motivate you, not that just financial targets. “I’m going to make a positive difference to 1 person every day”
  5. Take time out to refresh (no.1). Book your main break early in your diary so that you can plan for it and make it happen. Don’t wait for a quiet period to take your time off, it rarely happens.
  6. Take time out to refresh (no.2). Don’t underestimate the value of a weekend away. You may still think about work but the context and perception is entirely different in a fresh setting. 
  7. Take time out to refresh (no.3). If you hit a wall during the day then stop banging your head against it. Take a break. Go for a walk. Listen to some music. Have a chat. Press the reset button in your mind.
  8. Focus on your successes. We focus on issues and problems all the time so step back and recognise your wins: what’s gone well, where the progress has been, what’s made everyone smile.
  9. Freshen things up. Do things that people don’t expect to break up the pattern and get a different response. Something positive, something that will motivate those around you and reflect positively back on you. From a home-made cake to a team day, your options are unlimited.
  10. Last, but definitely not least, get yourself someone who understands your world to talk to. A mentor will help to sense-check your thinking, keep you positive, keep you grounded. I’m always happy to talk.
I hope that some things here resonate with you.
Good luck and keep smiling!

“Accountants can’t or won’t sell”

By Richard Brewin • February 25, 2025
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.

Progress, what progress?

By Richard Brewin • February 11, 2025
Back in the 60’s and 70’s, when I was a lad, doing the family laundry was a time consuming chore. Mum would disappear into the kitchen and close the door so that the noise around the rest of the house was at least manageable. She would be in there for hours, swapping between washing, rinsing and squeezing out.  Every so often the noise level would resemble a fighter jet taking off on an aircraft carrier as the tumbler element kicked in and then she’d reappear, wooden tongs in hand, to ask for help to reposition the twin tub that had danced across the kitchen floor.

Keeping your priorities clear

By Richard Brewin • January 13, 2025
Do I deal with the client who is shouting the loudest, the most pressing deadline, the thing that is most stressing me out, the best thing for my cash position, the team member who is stuck without my help, the thing that I had set out to do today or any one of all those other issues that are lined up at my door?  I would love to give you a definitive or simple answer but, of course, there isn’t one. Welcome to every day decision-making, not just in an accounting firm but in life!
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