Skills shortage – will KPMG layoffs help you?

What does the news that KPMG is cutting 200 jobs in the UK mean for the accountancy skills shortage?

It’s not the only one to make redundancies. In the last 18 months, across all of the Big 4, more than 9,000 employees have been let go via several rounds of layoffs in the UK, US, Australia and Canada.

Reports (and disgruntled former employees) suggest that the people in the firing line have one to five years’ experience, rather than those nearer the top of the tree with big salaries.

So could this be a benefit for smaller practices? Or will it mean more competition?

A boost to combat the skills shortage

With qualified, experienced accountants coming to the market, this could have an impact on the skills shortage that’s been a headache for so long. And, judging by some of the comments on sites like Reddit, many of these accountants feel very let down and may be looking for an employer who has a more personal approach.

The key is to make your firm look attractive to these potential new team members. You may not be able to offer the high salary they’ve been used to but you can probably offer a much better work-life balance. Working long hours is very much the norm at the Big 4 so highlight the advantages of working for you.

What makes your firm a great place to work? Do you do team activities together? Have a mentoring system? Offer development opportunities to progress their career? Are you driven by an overriding purpose beyond making money?

All of these elements are likely to appeal to someone who is feeling unappreciated and bruised by the redundancy process.

Will the layoffs mean more competition?

The other possibility is that some of these accountants will decide they’ve had enough of working for someone else and it’s time to set up on their own.

This could mean that a whole new crop of start-up firms appears, selling their services cheaply to launch themselves into the market. Will their Big 4 experience impress potential clients? Or is it irrelevant to smaller business owners who just want their accountant to understand their business and their challenges?

If you do see a rise in competition, try not to get drawn into a price cutting war. Focus on the value you provide to your clients, not how much your services cost. What are the benefits for a business owner of working with you? How do you support their business to grow or be more profitable? Which client testimonials can you use to demonstrate your expertise?

Want more tips on making your accountancy practice the go-to for both prospects and new team members? Take a look at The Accountants KnowHow Club.

It’s full of insights, advice and fresh ideas from industry experts and accountants in practice, all aimed at making your practice more profitable, more efficient and more enjoyable to run.

Find out more https://www.avn.co.uk/knowhowclub/

Make the Most of Real Moments: Lessons from a Song

The other day I heard a song I hadn’t listened to in a long time, “Cats in the Cradle” by Ugly Kid Joe.

Although it was written in 1974 (by Harry Chapin), the words and their message couldn’t be more relevant to now. If you don’t know it, it’s narrated by a father who is always too busy to spend time with his son. As the boy grows up and the father has more time, his son in turn is too busy for him. It’s a great song and incredibly poignant.

More than ever, we’re surrounded by things that distract us from what’s really important in life – time with the people we love. Reaching the next level of Candy Crush might feel more urgent than having a chat with your son or daughter. But, as the song shows us, those opportunities to chat won’t always be there.  

Here are five ways to make the most of each moment.

Cherish the Now

Make a conscious effort to be present. When you’re with family or friends, give them the entirety of your attention. If you’re checking your emails at the same time, you aren’t really with them. Emails can wait.

Quality over Quantity

It’s not the amount of time but the quality of it that leaves a lasting impression. Designate specific times for family that are non-negotiable. Whether it’s a weekly games night or a daily dinner together, these are the moments that build a lifetime of memories.

The Art of Being There

Being physically present is one thing, but being emotionally and mentally there is another. Listen to your children, your partner, your parents. Really hear them. Their words, their silence, their laughter and their sighs all tell a story. Be a part of it all.

Unplug to Connect

Challenge yourself and your family to unplug and put away devices. Take a leap into IRL! Whether it’s outdoor adventures or board games by the fire, if you have young kids, these are the things they’ll remember as they grow up. And it’s just as important for adults to connect with the real world too.

Making Memories That Last

The time we spend with our loved ones is the greatest legacy we leave behind. It’s not about material possessions. People will remember you for the hours you spent together, through good times and bad, and for the memories you made.

I highly recommend you go and listen to “Cat’s in the Cradle” again. The lyrics may be simple but their message is powerful. It’s a message that we all need to remember.

Photo by Dim Hou on Unsplash

Is your work-life balance all work and no life?

A few weeks ago I was working with an AVN member and he told me that his mission was to help people whose work-life balance was all work and no life. This really struck a chord with me. When I first started work, there were no mobile phones or laptops (OK, there may have been but not in everyday life and offices – I’m not that old!). But this meant that, even as a business owner, when you left work, you left work. You could go out for a meal with your family and not be interrupted by a client.

Nowadays I often speak to accountants (and business owners) who can’t get away from work. They can be contacted whenever and wherever through their mobile, text messages and even What’s App. Even if their clients aren’t hounding them, knowing that they could makes it really difficult to fully switch off.

What works for me may not work for you

At AVN we talk a lot about work-life balance and getting it right. People sometimes assume this means that we encourage people to work either 9 – 5 Monday to Friday, or just 3 days a week. But that’s not how I see it. To me, work-life balance to me is working the time you WANT to work and not the time you HAVE to work. 

My husband (and business partner) is a self-confessed workaholic. When he isn’t presenting webinars or having strategy calls, he’s always on his computer, looking at ways to improve the business or learning something new. He also regularly gets up at 6am to crack on with work because he’s far more productive then than at any other time of the day. But this works for him. 

At the same time, if he decides that he wants to do something with the kids, then he’s 100% there. Having teenagers, you need to make the most of the time they want to spend with you – it’s not that much these days!

I prefer to do less work in the daytime. I spend time with my family and friends or take the kids wherever they need to be. But then I work in the evening, when the kids are at their evening clubs. I can often be found in the pub with my laptop, drinking coffee. 

We’ve had so many questions about this over the years, saying we don’t practice what we preach. People say we ‘bang on about work-life balance but then reply to emails in the evening.’ In fact, we’ve had to put specific footers on our emails explaining the way we work. Because as long as the work-life balance you have works for you, then that’s all that matters.

So how do you get your work-life balance to balance?

There are many ways you can do this. Start by putting an out of office on your emails when you aren’t available, and letting your phone go to answerphone.

Ideally you would have a different work phone number to your personal one but that isn’t always possible if you’ve already given clients your personal number. So train and educate your clients on the hours when you’re contactable. These don’t have to be the same as your working hours. You may need uninterrupted time to get your tasks done, or time to work on your business.

Another thing to try (and one of my AVN Members does this) is to literally leave your mobile phone in the office when you go on holiday. So there’s no access to your emails at all and no-one is able to contact you. Radical!

If you have a team, you could also delegate client contact to a team member at certain times. This gives you the opportunity to catch up on your own work or to take some time off.

What I want to get across though is that this is YOUR life, and only YOU can decide what work-life balance feels right. As long as you (and your family) are happy with it, then that’s all that matters.

See more ideas on building an accountancy business that gives you your perfect work-life balance on the AVN KnowHow Hub.

Staff versus Team

Why I Don’t Like The Word ‘Staff’

In a small business it’s crucial that everyone, from the business owner to the newest recruit, works together well. That’s something I’ve learned after 23 years of working with accountancy practices – and working in a small business myself.

If they don’t, it can become a very toxic environment.

I don’t mean that everyone has to be best friends. But there has to be a mutual respect and appreciation for each other and for the value that each person contributes to the business as a whole.

Staff Versus Team

I still cringe every time I hear a business owner (accountant or other industries) talking about their ‘staff’. To me, this implies an us and them attitude – the owner versus the ‘staff’ or employees.

Having ‘staff’ suggests that you have a group of people working for you, not with you. That they have to do what they are told, and just get on with the job.

I’d much rather use the word ‘team’.

Having a team means that there’s a group of people working together to achieve a shared goal or objective. Where everyone brings their own strengths and skills. Where they can freely highlight issues or make suggestions to improve the business and help to push it towards their goal.

Of course, there are other words you could use apart from ‘staff’, such as employees, personnel, or workforce. But in my view, each of these suggests someone who just turns up to do their job, rather than someone committed to helping the business grow and develop.

Why Teamwork Works

We all know the cliched acronym of TEAM – Together Everyone Achieves More. But cliches become cliches for a reason. By removing the ‘us and them’ mentality, the business owner often finds that all of the team want to work together to ensure that the business goals are met. To work as a team, in fact.

A truly successful business shouldn’t depend on you being there to run it. And to achieve that, you need to have people around you who want to the same things and will work with you to make your goals a reality. Building a great team is the first step.

Do you need to make this change in your business? Why not give it a try for a few months and monitor the difference?

How to measure your business performance

You probably know the expression, ‘What gets measured gets managed.’ And it’s absolutely true. When you track a figure – monthly sales volume, for example – you want to see it improve so that’s where you focus your time and effort. And that’s why it’s crucial to be certain you’re measuring the RIGHT things for your business.

Why should you measure things in your business?

Because doing so gives you the information you need to effectively manage your business. It helps you to identify areas where you can improve efficiency. It helps you to understand whether your customers are happy or not. It allows you to spot problems early on so you can deal with them before they start to impact your business.

Measuring and reporting on the key figures for your business makes it easy to share information with your team. When they can see the metrics that are important to their role it helps to motivate them and make them feel involved. Working towards a common goal together becomes easier when you all understand how the business is performing.

But only if you measure the right things.

What are the important things to measure? 

Many people assume that you have to measure everything; if it moves, measure it! But if you do this, you can end up measuring the wrong things, drawing the wrong conclusions and wasting your time. Just because something is easy to measure, it doesn’t mean that you should.

One of the most obvious metrics to measure is your financial results – your profits and so on. But the clue is in the name – these are the results of what you do in your business, the consequence of getting other things right. Yes, you do need to measure these figures to understand if you are profitable or not, but they are not the most important things.

Your underlying success drivers are what really count. These will be different for each individual business so you need to identify what matters in yours (ideally you should only be measuring around 7 or 8 things). What do you do to drive your sales? What’s driving your costs? What’s driving your cash? Measuring these key underlying success drivers shows you what’s really going on.

Align with your vision and goals

There’s also one extra point that I think is crucial. You need to make sure that what you measure ties into your goals, your purpose, and your vision for your business. When you do, as your key metrics improve, you’ll know you’re progressing in the right direction. So before you start identifying the key success drivers for your business, you need to have a clear picture of your goals. What measurements will help to bring you closer? 

Start thinking about your business vision, purpose and goals. What systems can you put in place to measure the key things that will move you towards these goals? Take the time to really understand what’s important and what really impacts your results. Once you do, you can move forwards with confidence.

The easiest way to get new clients

Your accountancy practice needs a steady stream of new clients if it’s to flourish. And the best way to do that is to use a range of acquisition methods. But there’s one option that I believe should be in every accountant’s toolkit.

While Google ads, telemarketing or even direct mail can be very successful, this is one of the most effective. It’s also very simple, costs nothing and you already know how it works.

What is it?

It’s asking for referrals from your existing clients.

A referred lead is easier to convert than a completely cold lead, so you expend less effort, spend less money and have a higher conversion rate. What’s not to like?

You no doubt already have clients who started off as a referral, but chances are they came to you ad hoc and you don’t get them very often. If you want to accelerate the number and quality of the referrals you get, you need to systemise the process.

The potential gains from a great referral system

A systematic approach makes a huge difference.

Imagine you have 100 customers and you put systems in place to get the names of two contacts from each of them (i.e. 2 referrals from each). That’s 200 sales leads. Since it’s easier to convert these referred leads, let’s say you manage to achieve a 50% conversion rate – so half of these become paying clients.

How much would your business grow by if you did this systematically over a year? You’d have another 100 clients, double the number you had at the start. Of course, those are just estimated figures, but you can see the potential.

How to put a referral system in place

Start with the WHO, WHEN and WHAT.

WHO

Which of your clients should you ask for referrals? I’m tempted to say all of them; after all, the more you ask, the more you’ll get. But don’t ask for referrals from clients you aren’t happy with, e.g. if they’re not paying you enough, or they’re always trying to beat you down on price. Chances are the message they’d give out to their contacts about you is that you’re cheap, or that you always come down on fees. Don’t let the referral be all about how much you cost.

WHEN

Choose your moment to ask. The best time is obviously when you’ve done something that they’re really happy with. It could also be at the start of some work you’ll be doing for them, when they’re excited about the impact you can make on their business. Do you ask your clients for feedback? That’s another good time to pop the referral question. Whatever point you choose, make sure you include asking for a referral as part of the system.

WHAT

Knowing what to say is often the stumbling block for accountants. We often hear, “How do I ask without sounding desperate?’ Here are a couple of suggestions:

“I’m really pleased you’re so happy with the work we’ve done and I know you appreciate the way we help businesses like yours. If you have any contacts that would benefit from the same kind of help, I’d love to get their details and see what we can do.”

“I know you grow your business via word of mouth and it’s the same for us. So if you know someone who’s looking a for a new accountant or just wants to have a chat, it would be great if you can put me in touch with them.”

You will have most success if you feel comfortable asking for the referral, so play around with the wording until you find a format that works for you.

Here are a few more points to remember:

DO …

  • Make clear that you won’t put any sales pressure on the new contact. People will be reluctant to pass on their friends’ details if they think they’re going to get a full on sales pitch.
  • Tell your clients what kind of businesses you want to work with – then they can spot your ideal clients for you!
  • Make it easy. When physical meetings are possible again, it’s a good idea to give your clients some of your business cards (you could have cards printed that are specifically aimed at referrals) so they just have to hand them out to their contacts. In the current situation where physical meetings are impossible almost everywhere, you could send out a link to your Zoom room and an online calendar to book a time slot with you.
  • Refer your own contacts to your clients when appropriate. If you send them business, they will be even more willing to do the same for you.

DON’T …

  • Take on any old client just because they’re a referral. You may be worried about upsetting your existing client if you don’t accept them, but if they aren’t right for you, no one will benefit in the long run. When you don’t feel the fit is right, send them on somewhere else that would suit them better. This way everyone is happy.
  • Break the rules. A thank you gift for a referral goes a long way to making your clients feel appreciated. But be aware of the rules that your professional body sets.

Use monkey management to make your business more productive

How much time would you save if you never had to solve problems for your team ever again? Many managers spend a huge amount of time and effort solving problems brought to them by their team.

Imagine the scene…

A team member comes up to you and says “We have a problem.” They then spend 15 minutes telling you about it. And you end up saying “Leave it with me and I’ll see what I can do.” As a result their problem becomes your problem… and you end up doing everybody else’s work.

Sound familiar? In their great book, The One Minute Manager Meets The Monkey, Ken Blanchard and William Oncken and Hal Burrows describe this as “Letting a monkey jump from your team member’s back onto yours” – and they claim that it is one of the biggest thieves of managers’ time.

The monkey is the Next Step. And the key to effective delegation is only agreeing to take the next step yourself (i.e. to let the monkey jump onto your back) if it is a step that ONLY you can take.

Here’s A Brief Overview Of The Monkey Management Approach:

Step 1

As your team member brings you a problem, say, “We need to both understand that ‘WE’ don’t have problems. If there is a problem it is either yours or mine. And if it’s your problem I will help you on the clear understanding that it will never become my problem. So at the end of this meeting it will be you that has to do whatever it is that we agree needs doing. Does that make sense?” Also make it clear in advance that whenever team members bring a problem to you, they must also bring at least one suggestion for the next step.

Note: This alone will greatly reduce the number of problems brought to you. In thinking of their suggested next steps, they will often discover that they can solve the whole thing without ever involving you.

Step 2

As they tell you about the problem and their suggested next steps, you decide what needs to happen next. It could be to go with one of their suggestions; do something else you dreamed up at the meeting; or go away and research some other solutions.

Step 3

Agree who is to take that next step or steps. Remember, this next step is the “Monkey” – and you should only let it jump on your back if it’s a step that only you can take!

Step 4

Agree whether they have full authority to take the next steps and then report back to you; or whether they need to bring you more recommendations before they take some or all of the next steps. This should only be necessary where the problem is either very important or you have serious doubts that the person is fully up to the task.

Step 5

Agree a time when they will report back to you.

Step 6

At that next meeting, go back to Step 1 and start again. Continue looping through the six-step process in this way until the problem has been solved.

I also strongly recommend that you read the One Minute Manager Meets The Monkey (available on www.amazon.co.uk) since it obviously contains a lot more guidance than I’m able to give here. Many people regard it as the most useful and practical book on effective management and delegation ever written. Best of all you can read it in 60-90 minutes – so there’s no excuse! And ask your team to read it so that they understand what you are trying to achieve and why.

See more blogs from me and the AVN team at www.avn.co.uk/avn-insights

How to be more effective

There are only so many hours in the day and we all want to use them wisely. So how can you be more effective with your time?

These are my top tips for being more effective:

Write down your goals

Establish your goals – remember SMART when setting them – and make sure that they are in writing (for more on this, see my recent article One simple thing you must do to achieve your goals). Keep asking yourself, “What is the most valuable use of my time right now?” and focus on the tasks with the highest pay off leading to your goal. 

Do the right thing

A good manager does things right, but a good leader does the right things. Check that you are always doing the right things rather than just doing things right. Do more of what you do well and less of what you don’t do well. You can apply this to your business too by asking yourself, “What made my business successful in the past?” Those are the things you should  keep doing.

The art of delegating

To be effective at managing your time, you need to learn the art of delegation. But don’t just pass on a piece of work and assume the other person knows what you want. Make sure they understand and ask them to feed that information back to you in his or her own words.  Don’t finish the conversation until the appropriate next steps have been identified and specified.

Maximise the effectiveness of your prime time

Everyone has a prime time – the time of the day when you are at your most effective. So use it for your most important, creative work. Little stuff has a tendency to multiply and take over so make sure you don’t use this valuable time for clearing up unimportant things. Make your prime time a period of sustained, concentrated effort and stay with a task until it is finished.

Finish one task before you start a new one

Don’t keep taking on new things until you’ve finished off others. Remember the old Chinese proverb, A man who chases two rabbits catches neither. Focus on getting the right things done (see my first tip above) and don’t forget the Pareto principle (the 80/20 rule) – 20% of your efforts produce 80% of your results. Apply this throughout your business.

What can you eliminate?

Finally, decide what to eliminate, i.e. the things you should not be doing. This might be a service that isn’t profitable, or a segment of your clients that no longer fit with you. In other words, if 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers, concentrate on these and you could potentially drop the remaining 80% of customers.

Even applying 20% of the ideas above could have a massive impact on your efficiency. If you’re an accountant and want more help on using your time efficiently, join the AVN Know How Hub and take a look at the webinar by Emma Slack on Taking Back Control.

One simple thing you must do to achieve your goals

One of the challenges that we hear over and over again is that accountants are really struggling with time management at the moment.

There are dozens of strategies to help you manage your time, but one of the simplest is also one of the most effective.

What do you want to achieve?

It’s essential to have a clear picture of what you are trying to achieve. You must have goals and objectives – what are you trying to do and how are you going to do it?

And these must be in writing… written goals have been proven to contribute massively to business success.

Research shows that less than 3% of people have written goals. And even then, less than 1% review their written goals on a regular basis. But these are the most successful people. 

When you write down your goals, think of what you want to do in both your personal life and your business. After all, they’re linked together and your business goals are the things your business will achieve to enable you to reach your personal goals.

Write down as many as you can, even if they seem impossible, and then rank them. Which ones are most important to you? These are your highest priorities and should be your focus.

If you find it difficult to express your personal goals, ask yourself questions like:

  • “If I could guarantee that I would succeed at something I decided to do, what would I do?”
  • “If I won the lottery, what would I do?”

How will you get there?

Once you have set out your goals, next work out the steps you will need to take to achieve them. Include as much detail as possible so it’s absolutely clear at every stage what you have to do.

Of course, achieving your goals isn’t always a straightforward process. So ask yourself, “What are the obstacles in my way?” Write these down too. When you look at them closely, you’ll probably find that some of them are factual (so write down the steps to overcome these) and others are really mental obstacles, i.e. beliefs about your ability to achieve your goals. Past experiences often influence our perceptions of what we can and can’t do and fear of failure can be very powerful. Challenge your own assumptions about what’s possible.

Never lose sight of what you set out to do. A visible reminder – e.g. on the wall in your office – will help to keep you on track. And then make sure you do something every day to move towards your goals. Even if it’s a tiny step, when you consistently take action you will make progress.

With every task you’re faced with, ask yourself “Is this taking me towards my goal or further away?” It makes decisions so much easier when you think in this way.

When we work with AVN Members, one of the first things we do is to find out about their goals so that we can ensure that the actions they set are moving them towards that goal. This is part of our ‘Clarity’ Roadmap.

To find out more about how AVN helps accountants to achieve their goals, visit www.avn.co.uk.

My Shock at Accountex

I had the pleasure of attending Accountex this year for the full 2 days, being able to take some time to speak to accountants in practice about the challenges they are facing at the moment.

There seems to be a lot of talk about what to use as a practice management tool, with there being a number of suppliers in the market place, many of the accountants I spoke to were there to speak to their preferred supplier to find out more about implementation of the tool, or to speak to a range of possible suppliers to find out about the benefits of each of them and to work out which tool to use.

And of course, there is still lots of talk about Making Tax Digital.  Different people have different views on MTD, ranging from the ‘this is a great opportunity’ right through to ‘What’s making tax digital?’.

 

My View

As an accountant in practice, you are having yet another ‘thing’ pushed on you by HMRC.  Not only do you have to keep up to date with the changes in legislation with regard to preparing accounts and tax returns for your clients, and it doesn’t feel that long ago that iXBRL was the latest ‘thing’. MTD though, feels to me like an opportunity to help your clients to integrate to a system of bookkeeping where there is a lot more automation available and that will give them up to date financial information, and could easily save them hours of time (and money) when it comes to having their accounts prepared by you, giving you the opportunity (and time) to help them with other aspects of their business.

 

The Shocking Conversations

I know that for many businesses MTD isn’t required just yet, but it will be upon us before we realise. The number of sole practitioner accountants I spoke to at Accountex with over 100 clients, who had done nothing so far about talking to their clients was shocking.  I didn’t go into detail with these accountants, as there wasn’t the time, but surely the laws of averages would suggest that some of these businesses are likely to be over the VAT threshold?

I also find it scary that friends and family of mine that currently have manual books and are over the VAT threshold are only just being approached by their accountant about MTD, and not given very much information (meaning that they are coming to me asking for help and guidance).

 

Your Actions  

If you are an accountant in practice, create a basic document for all of your clients about the changes that are coming, and encourage them to move to a system that will allow the future integration of MTD so that they are prepared and so are you, rather than rushing around at the last-minute panicking.