Page 1

TURNING CLIENT PROBLEMS INTO ENGAGEMENTS – PART 2 And make more money in fewer hours

Presented by

Rick Solomon, CPA

CEO, RAN ONE Americas

Contents Copyright © 2010 RAN ONE Americas,

LLC

Page 2

How to Solve Your

Clients Biggest

Three Problems

Page 3

Percentage of

business clients who

could use more

help?

Text 1

Traditional Services – Accounting

– Tax

– Audit

Results – Commodity

perception

– $ = Hours

– Buy because they “have to”

What Clients Want

– Success:

– $

– Quality of Life

Results – Value Perception

– $ = Value

– Buy because they “want to”

Evolution of your practice

Text 1

Traditional Services – Accounting

– Tax

– Audit

Results – Commodity

perception

– $ = Hours

– Buy because they “have to”

What Clients Want

– Success:

– $

– Quality of Life

Results – Value Perception

– $ = Value

– Buy because they “want to”

Page 6

Personal Goals

Business Planning

Monitor/Manage

Result: Profitability & Professional Wellbeing

Entry

Business Advisory Process

Page 7

The Big 4 Issues Overview

1. Lack of clear

personal and

business objectives

When you come to a fork in the road,

take it.

Yogi Berra

Page 8

2. Lack of

effective

business plan

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. “Which road do I take?” she asked. His response was a question: “Where do you want to go?” “I don’t know,” Alice answered. “Then,” said the cat, “it doesn’t matter”

Lewis Carroll

English Novelist

Page 9

3. Liquidity and

profitability

challenges

Page 10

Biggest Problem#1

Setting Goals

Clarifying business and

personal objectives

Page 11

To be an effective business

advisor you MUST know

your clients business &

personal goals

Page 12

Symptoms of conflicting business and personal objectives

Symptoms of “No clear Goals”

• Don’t know where they’re going

• Poor return for the effort

• Lack of stakeholder alignment

• Decline in business value +/or

personal wealth

• Decreased quality of life

• Increased business dependency

Page 13

Clarifying objectives is the starting point Find out what they want so you can help them get there.

Do not make the mistake of assuming you know what your client wants

The business plan must help achieve the owners’ personal objectives

Page 14

Three Elements of Planning

1. Personal Financial Goals

2. Business Goals

3. Quality of life

Page 15

1. Personal Financial Goals

a) Current requirements

b) Retirement plans

c) Dependency on business for financial well being

Page 16

Ask the right questions:

2. Business goals

a)Dependency

b)Saleability & value

c)Operations & profits

Page 17

Ask the right questions:

3. Quality of life

a) Health

b) Relationship with business

c) Outside interests

Page 18

One Page Goals Statement

Your Personal Financial Goals

Capital Target: To have $3m on retirement plus

my home so I can generate an income of $150k pa

from investments.

Estate Planning: Update wills, power of attorney

and document loans to kids.

You and Your Business Goals

Dependency: Reduce dependency on my

involvement in the business by:

-Training the business manager to succeed me

-Spend 50% of my time working ‘on’ not ‘in’ the

business

Saleability: Prepare the business operationally for

sale by documenting major contracts and

processes by March 31.

Family Charter: Document current agreement by

November 30.

TEAM: arrange formal HR management system so

that new talent can be identified and developed.

Management Information: Get more reliable

information regularly and include non-financial

targets like TEAM development progress.

Your Quality of Life

Health: Reduce stress- lower blood pressure and

increase general fitness. Sleep better.

Role in Business: Aim to be out in 5 years, with a

replacement CEO in place within 3 years.

Outside interests: Get handicap under 20, go to a

pro for lessons and take a two week golfing

holiday each year. Year 1 Pebble Beach, year 2 St

Andrews, year 3 Augusta.

Page 19

Project plan

Page 20

Benefits of developing a personal plan

Results:

• Increase business value • Increase personal wealth • Improve return for effort • Better quality of life • Increase exit options • Decrease business

dependency • Expand opportunities and

options • Alignment among key

stakeholders

Page 21

RAN ONE tool is PGS+

Personal Goal Setter does

all of the above

Page 22

Thoughts on helping

clients set business &

personal goals?

Page 23

Biggest Problem#2 Lack of effective business strategy

Business Planning

Lack of effective

business plan

Page 24

Symptoms of lacking an effective business strategy

Symptoms of “No effective business

plan”

• Not clear where they’re heading

• No overall game plan

• Busy working IN, not ON, the business

• Competition is gaining

• Not responding to changing market

• Owner prefers the old ways.

• Management indecision

• No growth or ‘edge’

Page 25

Why plan in business?

It’s estimated that over 70% of SMEs go onto the playing

field without a plan

Page 26

Vision – where you are going

Vision

What the business is aiming to become

• guides consistent decision making

• builds team alignment and individual motivation

• helps to establish values and builds culture

Page 27

Strategy – How you plan on getting there

Strategy; How the vision will be achieved

Strategy is not an end in itself

Page 28

Understand

problem

Develop

solution

Implement

plan

Advisory Workflow

Page 29

The steps in developing a plan for business

Evaluate Ideas

Develop Plan & Milestones

Manage and Monitor

Understand Current Position

SWOT Analysis

Generate Ideas

Where is the business now?

Evaluate strengths, weaknesses,

opportunities and threats

Clarify Vision

and Direction

Develop a Plan for Action

Manage and monitor plan

Page 30

Business planning framework

Vision

Stra

teg

y

Stru

ctu

re

Cu

lture

Products and Services

Marketing and Sales

People

Systems and

Processes

Finance

Assess what’s working well and

what needs improvement

Page 31

Tool for business planning

Page 32

Developing a business plan

Helping a client develop a business plan creates opportunities for additional services. • General Management Help (OWLs)

• Monitoring and Reporting - KPIs

• Activity Based Costing

• Efficiency and Effectiveness enhancement

• Marketing

• And lots more….

Page 33

Biggest Problem#4 Liquidity and profitability challenges

Profit Improvement and

Cash Flow

Liquidity and profitability challenges

Page 34

Symptoms of liquidity & profitability challenges

Symptoms of profit & liquidity

problems

• Cash flow problems

• Lack of growth

• Ineffective cash management

• Profit margins are low

• Poor ROI

• Potential loss of business

• Possible personal bankruptcy

• STRESS!!!

Page 35

What is profit improvement and cash flow?

Four ways to grow a business

1. Get more customers

2. Increase the number of transactions per customer

3. Increase the value of each transaction

4. Reduce operating costs

Page 36

1

2

3

4

1 More customers

2 Increase # transactions

3 Increase $ value @ transaction

4 Improve operating costs

Page 37

Page 38

Making all 4 ways work for you

Try this calculator on your own practice

It’s simple to understand and discuss with a client

Page 39

Level of interest in

exploring some

resources?

Page 40

Page

: 40