My journey: Part two

In part one, I revealed how I took on a small accountancy practice with a host of problems and stressed out staff into a thriving concern with 250% profit growth, negative WIP and an award winning, go-getting team. In this instalment, I will outline the steps we took to achieve such remarkable changes.

Having spent five years getting the practice’s house in order, so to speak, my fellow partner and I decided that we needed some extra support to help the firm get to the next level. We looked at all that was available at the time from 2020 to the Dunn style boot camps and remained sceptical.

After attending a three day AVN event we maintained our cynicism and remained arms firmly crossed and our minds firmly closed as we listened to Steve Pipe. Rumour had it that we were going to be asked to leave the event as we looked so negative and disruptive! For some reason, we felt that it was worth joining this network and giving it a go. The scepticism remained but our minds had latched on to a few things which we believed could work for us and were worth the investment.

I would not be so naïve to say joining a network was a magic wand to cure all problems but it was pivotal in moving us to another level and at some speed. Maybe we could have got there on our own, but the journey would have been so much longer and more challenging.

Meeting challenges
We faced challenges during the next few years and would sit down annually to review our investment in the network we had chosen and whether we were still getting a good return. After starting with the small simple stuff to get us going we could see a real difference. Things like fixed price agreements and client manager systems helped to eliminate our lockup and cash flow problems very quickly. We were able to tap into resources to help us package business advisory work which clients were happy to pay for and that we could deliver with confidence.

Marketing and raising profile is a big issue for the smaller firm. We used a combination of tools our network provided, a part time external consultant and launching our own seminars to generate new client leads and promote our services. These seminars (business builder forums, also known as BBFs) were the single most beneficial thing we used from our Pandora’s box of network tools.

The ten keys to making it all happen
My own clients now ask what the ‘top ten’ checklist is that made Landers develop so successfully. This is what I would say:

• Develop and maintain the right attitude as a partner.
• Do the small stuff first.
• Be disciplined in booking out small chunks of your time in the diary to ‘practice development’.
• Enlist the help of an outsider to come in and chair your partners meetings. Landers did this periodically and the difference it made was phenomenal. None of what we did was rocket science, but having a third party to talk to made us more responsible and accountable. It made us feel less isolated and encouraged us to run our own business like it should be.
• Listen and learn from others and copy their strategies which are successful.
• Set your own goals and have a business plan which you update at least six monthly.
• Get your team on board and let them share the business plan and understand their part in it. This was something Landers embarked on and then went on to roll out with clients.
• Measure your successes regularly. Our particular network membership ensured we did this as par for the course as we were mindful of what we were paying and keen to ensure we made a profit on that investment.
• Don’t procrastinate and think too deeply. Accountants are conservative and analytical creatures by nature. I wasted time in really getting going with the tools our network had provided us with in the first three years of membership. Progress would have been swifter if I had sorted out my mindset sooner and just got on with it.
• Don’t worry about failure. Some things will prove more successful than others. Some firms had successes with our network resources that were unmitigated disasters for Landers. We put these aside quickly and just moved on. Overall there were more wins than losses and it’s only the successes you remember.

In conclusion, if you take one thing away from reading these articles it is that you simply must have a plan and take action. If you don’t, then how can you expect anything to change for the better? Resources are available to help you, so seize the opportunity and watch the results.

Finola McManus is a chartered accountant and a former senior partner of Landers Accountants in Bedfordshire. She is now a professional accountants’ coach and founder of Practice Perfect, a consultancy service which offers targeted solutions to help practices grow.

Finola McManus FCA
Email: Finola@practice-perfect.net
www.practice-perfect.net