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:
- 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?
- Have your business reflect your ‘why’. Tangibly, with photos, wall-mounted statements, desk models etc and intangibly by embedding it into your culture.
- 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.
- Set goals that motivate you, not that just financial targets. “I’m going to make a positive difference to 1 person every day”
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
Look at any accounting firm website and there is a fair chance that the word ‘proactive’ will be prominent. Ask some business owners and taxpayers whether they consider their accountant to be proactive. There is commonly a gap between the two, between the intent of the accountant and the expectations of the client.
The tag ‘Trusted Advisor’ gets bandied around a lot. Without trying to be deliberately contentious, I often challenge its use. Undoubtedly, accountants were once the trusted advisor to their clients. When I came into the profession 44 years ago now, the older partners, especially, were seen by their clients as their trusted advisor, their ‘go to’ person on any issues, business, family or personal, that were troubling them. Without the filing deadlines of today, these clients were with their accountant primarily because they valued the relationship rather than the products.
All accountants are the same! We’ve all heard it said. It’s nonsense, of course, but, when you are asked what it is that your firm does that differentiates it from other accounting firms, it can be a challenge to come up with something tangible. Accounting firms tend to offer similar services, that’s what makes them accounting firms. Differentiating from competitors based upon services provided is therefore an issue.