Now now lads you have given Amanda a bit of a mauling here on what is a decent article. Whilst the market is full of marketers for accountants (i must get 5 contacts a day from them) having met Amanda and seen several of her presentations she is certainly in the top 2 or 3 people who does what she does.
As a keen angler myself, the fishing comment is quite a good one really in connection to her article. If the you throw bag net out and drag it through the sea you will catch some fish, but they may not be the ones you want so have to throw them back wasting time and money.
If you go fly fishing you are after 1 type of fish, maybe even a single big fish (niche) so get the results you want. So not a bad summary.
With regards creating a niche some guys have created very good niche practices, just look at the Wow Company or MAP in Manchester I would love to achieve what they have.
On the flip side I know of niche firms in the contractor game who are facing ruin.
Whilst a total niche would be great the issues we all face in the early days is the need to earn a living unless you have an investor behind you or a wealthy partner and no matter people say its almost impossible to avoid working too cheaply and for some of the wrong clients. Treat it as a learning curve.
I now have some good pockets of clients within my fee bank which are industry specific but I prefer to work for a type of person as oppose to an industry type. I have 2 client personas I work with, the main is effectively people like me, so similar values, background etc and husband and wife teams. I relate best to them as I face the same issues.
The second persona I go for is an attempt to keep my fee bank fresh and is effectively "me when I was 30" so younger and more dynamic but need a bit more hand holding.
Since highlighting on these 2 client types I have hit a rich vein of client referrals, as they all mix in similar social circles its good for cross referrals.
Not sure if this is a niche or not but its working for me now, after I have found my own line of best fit through to the right clients, its only took me 5 years to work it out.
I think you would find the number of meetings you got reduced a lot if you charged a fee if you as a supplier charged a fee for a cancelled meeting to sell me something.
For me it was the perfect result, creating a government that has the power to make change and break the status quo.
IT will hopefully force the opposition to clean house and remove the Momentum thugs from the part to build a credible opposition which a democracy needs so a win win.
Boris is clear the North have only lent him votes so he needs to not mess up.
After a few years where things have been quite stagnant I have a positive feeling that 2020 will be a good year, with infrastructure work kicking off and hopefully some money into the economy.
I have not felt like this since 1997 when Tony Blair swept to power on the back of "Things can only get better". They did and what followed was a pretty good 10 years, right up to the point it all went [***] up and history recorded him as a war criminal.
2019 was [***] year for me so lets hope 2020 "Things do actually get better".
Why would accountants put their clients onto this system for free, so this guy can pitch them to do your accounts for £50 pm, which is way below market rates, and without a proven record or regulation in the UK.
Across the summer we went back to basics and won a lot of work with the types of clients you refer to.
A lot of it is down to education and knowing that there is another way. Xero + Bank Feed + Receipt will
give 85/100 of what a client needs the remaining 15% would come from the Epos linking in or using stripe etc. Most cafes seem to inherit the previous owners till when they take it over and just carry on with it, you can get an Izettle setup for £400 which is worth the money but a tough sale to get some people.
Remember there is maybe 800k clients on the cloud now, with maybe 2m that would benefit from taking that step so a lot of work still to do, instead of just chasing new tech all the time we still have a responsibility to bring the less able forward also.
My answers
Now now lads you have given Amanda a bit of a mauling here on what is a decent article. Whilst the market is full of marketers for accountants (i must get 5 contacts a day from them) having met Amanda and seen several of her presentations she is certainly in the top 2 or 3 people who does what she does.
As a keen angler myself, the fishing comment is quite a good one really in connection to her article. If the you throw bag net out and drag it through the sea you will catch some fish, but they may not be the ones you want so have to throw them back wasting time and money.
If you go fly fishing you are after 1 type of fish, maybe even a single big fish (niche) so get the results you want. So not a bad summary.
With regards creating a niche some guys have created very good niche practices, just look at the Wow Company or MAP in Manchester I would love to achieve what they have.
On the flip side I know of niche firms in the contractor game who are facing ruin.
Whilst a total niche would be great the issues we all face in the early days is the need to earn a living unless you have an investor behind you or a wealthy partner and no matter people say its almost impossible to avoid working too cheaply and for some of the wrong clients. Treat it as a learning curve.
I now have some good pockets of clients within my fee bank which are industry specific but I prefer to work for a type of person as oppose to an industry type. I have 2 client personas I work with, the main is effectively people like me, so similar values, background etc and husband and wife teams. I relate best to them as I face the same issues.
The second persona I go for is an attempt to keep my fee bank fresh and is effectively "me when I was 30" so younger and more dynamic but need a bit more hand holding.
Since highlighting on these 2 client types I have hit a rich vein of client referrals, as they all mix in similar social circles its good for cross referrals.
Not sure if this is a niche or not but its working for me now, after I have found my own line of best fit through to the right clients, its only took me 5 years to work it out.
I just missed out on buying the pub in the picture a few year back in my FD days, the one that got away that deal.
I think you would find the number of meetings you got reduced a lot if you charged a fee if you as a supplier charged a fee for a cancelled meeting to sell me something.
For me it was the perfect result, creating a government that has the power to make change and break the status quo.
IT will hopefully force the opposition to clean house and remove the Momentum thugs from the part to build a credible opposition which a democracy needs so a win win.
Boris is clear the North have only lent him votes so he needs to not mess up.
After a few years where things have been quite stagnant I have a positive feeling that 2020 will be a good year, with infrastructure work kicking off and hopefully some money into the economy.
I have not felt like this since 1997 when Tony Blair swept to power on the back of "Things can only get better". They did and what followed was a pretty good 10 years, right up to the point it all went [***] up and history recorded him as a war criminal.
2019 was [***] year for me so lets hope 2020 "Things do actually get better".
Dear god
At what point does hire rate dividend tax come in
They might have to rethink this for the many not the few lark
A good preview John, the app everyone is talking about is Xavier analytics, its the only one on my list to see when I am there.
You mention a lot of reporting apps, is Castaway there?
For me you need to be a software vendor or an accountant.
If you are running a loss leader like this to try and pick up accountancy its a very expensive way of doing it I suspect.
Just charge for the software and get UK partners to use it, but don't bite the hand that feeds you.
Its like a Turkey voting for Christmas.
Why would accountants put their clients onto this system for free, so this guy can pitch them to do your accounts for £50 pm, which is way below market rates, and without a proven record or regulation in the UK.
Nearly £30??
Xero standard is £24 before your discounts
If you have small clients who don't need sales and purchase ledgers there is cashbook xero for £5 which works with a bank feed.
As for time savings its a lot more than a few hours per year they save.
Across the summer we went back to basics and won a lot of work with the types of clients you refer to.
A lot of it is down to education and knowing that there is another way. Xero + Bank Feed + Receipt will
give 85/100 of what a client needs the remaining 15% would come from the Epos linking in or using stripe etc. Most cafes seem to inherit the previous owners till when they take it over and just carry on with it, you can get an Izettle setup for £400 which is worth the money but a tough sale to get some people.
Remember there is maybe 800k clients on the cloud now, with maybe 2m that would benefit from taking that step so a lot of work still to do, instead of just chasing new tech all the time we still have a responsibility to bring the less able forward also.