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Practice Excellence: Small business advisory

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27th Jul 2016
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One of three new categories for this year’s Practice Excellence Awards, the small business advisory gong puts the spotlight on the country’s most successful business advisers, allowing them to demonstrate how they make a difference to their business clients’ lives.

Examining the applications, the judges wanted to see if firms had established a business advisory culture that reached beyond compliance. Assessing the applicants there was a simple question to answer: how much is business advisory a bolt on for the firm, or is advisory at least as important as accounting to them?

The judges agreed that while some firms still think advisory is linked to compliance, top entries to the awards showed a proven, demonstrable commitment to advisory services, and that it was part of their culture.

Key trends

There was much debate among the judges about whether they were seeing a trend towards business advisory becoming the heart of many firms’ business, and while there was much anecdotal evidence to suggest this, evidence in the form of hard facts was thin on the ground.

The judges agreed that while it was positive firms are adopting technology in order to share better management information with business owners, and talking about management information not just accounts, many firms are still embedded as ‘the accountant’ first and foremost. There was still a lack of recognition among businesses that the best and most powerful business advisors are their accountant.

There was a trend towards technology showing up in advisory firms, but not the profound technological change often associated with profound industry change.

One trend that was evident in applications saw firms that truly focused on advisory services gain an uplift in turnover – on average 10% across all applications.

Shortlist

The judges had a hard task whittling the entrants down to a shortlist of three, but in the end plumped for the three firms offering outstanding small business advisory services as described below. Before the winner is announced in October, AccountingWEB will be returning to these firms to find out in more detail about how they are helping their small business clients grow.

Murray Associates Accountants Ltd

Scottish firm Murray Associates impressed the judges with their commitment to a vision of advisory services and the identification of what is needed to deliver what they have promised.

Factor in the firm’s shortlisting included the guarantees offered on their work, free compliance services and good client evidence in the form of case studies and testimonials.

The commitment to jargon-free advice and the application of practical business experience to their clients’ companies demonstrated to the judges that the firm was making a real difference to businesses.

FD Works

The judges were in agreement that FD Works are passionate about supporting their business clients with advice. They provided good evidence of their commitment to advisory, with an impact on 90% of clients demonstrating that it was a culture across the company.

In their application the firm demonstrated their passion and credibility, demonstrating evidence of scalability for the bespoke tools they are using.

FD Works showed strong growth over the past 12 months, with clients paying £8,000 a month for advice that was not purely accountancy-based..

Tayabali Tomlin

A regular on the Practice Excellence Award circuit, Tayabali Tomlin impressed the judges this time round with their clear commitment to advisory services.

The firm showed clear evidence that advisory services are fundamental to their business model with statistics, testimonials and case studies, displaying evidence of process at all levels: entrepreneurs, planning, financial modelling, reporting and KPIs, to name a few.

Advisory appears to be embedded throughout their culture, and the firm’s promise to bring Big Four services and quality to small business seems to pay off, as their average fees are amongst the highest in the category.

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