2022 Report on the state of the North American Accounting Profession
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Office or home?
Nowadays, more and more employees are having to work remotely. COVID aside, employees now don’t need to waste time commuting and can use their time during the day better. Companies all around the world have seen this trend and many of them hop on it.
And the offshore world is no different.
Build trust – share this with your team
Great teams are those that trust their leaders.
One great way to build trust is becoming fully-transparent about your company’s metrics.
Do you disclose your company’s cash flow or profit with your employees?
Build Relationships the Smart Way
I told you about the importance of phone calls – and why you should NEVER charge for one.
Of course, while you can’t avoid phone calls from your clients, you can’t spend hours on the phone either. But, how to avoid excess communication and still show your customers that you care?
Increase your charge rates?
I wanted to talk about your business model – and the money that you charge for your services.
If you’re a “standard” accounting firm, I bet your business model can be broken into the following steps:
– Complete a service
– Charge for the hours that you’ve worked
If yes, then it’s likely that you’ve trapped yourself in a transactional relationship.
Why I believe in you
Did you know that there’s an estimated 500M+ of small to medium sized businesses in the world?
And pretty much every one of them is ‘connected’ to an accounting firm in some way, shape or form.
Be it by tax, compliance or audit.
Out of that 500M+, around 1.3M are accounting companies – just like yours – generating around US$500BN in revenue.
Having Fun Is Good for Your Business
Let me ask you this – do you often have fun at work?
If your answer is never or something close to it, it’s time to change it.
Having fun in the workplace helps you create an atmosphere you and your employees enjoy. And this can motivate them in ways other things can’t.
The last thing you want is having your team members bolt for the door at 5 pm.
Sharing Success Can Bring Even More Deals
Becoming an effective salesperson as an accountant can take time – especially if you try to master all the nuances of a sales process.
Thankfully, the more you succeed the easier it should be for you to build on that success, right? In the end, we all know that success is a tremendous confidence booster.
The problem is, way too often we tend to underestimate the value of our achievements.
Let Your Client Do the Work for You
What’s one of the biggest time suckers for every accountant?
Trying to solve difficult problems where there’s more guessing than actual work.
This is where clear communication with your client can help you.
In the end, why should you be doing all the guesswork, if a 5-minute phone call could save you hours of your time?
The 6 Criteria for an A-Grade Client
No accounting firm can work with just anyone. Picking the right clients can often make a difference between failure and success.
Even the biggest accounting firms out there don’t just accept everyone who knocks on their door. No matter how capable they might be, they’re not willing to work with clients who are not a good fit.
I believe this is an important lesson that all accountants need to learn.
How Accountants plan and how they should
For the past 24 years I have interacted with over 175,000 Accountants across the globe and directly coached 434 firms adding over $850M in new profit to those firms. In that time I have seen all sorts of revenue / profit planning methods. From no plan, finger in the wind (hope is not a strategy), to the typical (worst) kind.