Building a modern accounting practice… (and not going bust in the process)

#launchpad

• Chartered Accountant - 10 years in practice  • 3 x Xero award winner in first 3 years of practice being

opened (most awards globally)  • Winner of Anthill’s 30 under 30 in 2014  • 5 startups in 5 years (1 failed, 3 running, 1 dormant)  • Obsessed with Accounting + Technology  • Founder + CEO at Practice Ignition.

A bit about me

“I want to deliver better information to small business owners to make better decisions and change the world.”

@guy_pearson

Interactive Accounting  interactive by name and nature

• Self funded + bootstrapped from the ground up (whilst I bartended at nights)  • 5 years old (2010 start date)  • 3 offices around Australia  • 20 amazing people onboard  • 100% cloud from day 1  • Model built on the back of studying startups  • Clients in 8 countries  • Services high growth companies, High Net Worth Individuals and 100%

cloud businesses.  • Helped companies raise $100m in funding and exits

Let’s talk accounting

• Define your USP  

• Pick a business model

• Focus on your clients  

• Build for scale  

• Make yourself obsolete.

• Key Technology

• Passion

• Takeaways.

• Q+A.

Agenda

It’s what makes you stand out from the crowd!  

Unique Selling Proposition (“USP”)

Define your USP

The Surgeon  You’re a specialist at what you do.

Everything in the firm is designed to have you at the top, to do the delicate work, the sign off and you only generate revenue when you work.

Local Coffee Shop  Personalised service to your local area, region, market , but a jack of all trades to everyone.

McDonalds  The goal is volume and repeatable service over and over again. Would you like fries with that?

Your business model

You can pick more then one.

Make sure if you want to operate more then one model that they play nicely with each other.

e.g. Compliance is usually a McDonald style model that feeds into local coffee shops for industry specific + surgeons for high niche.

It doesn’t matter what any expert says. These people are the most important people at your practice. Without exception.

Money talks  Your clients are the reason that you have a practice, they fund every decision you make.

Bullshit walks  They will stay with you whilst there is trust. Don’t bullshit them. Don’t over promise and own up when you stuff up with a plan to fix the issue.

What do they want?  As an industry, we are afraid to ask this questions. Make sure you ask your clients if they’re happy with your service and ask them if they would refer you (net  promoter  score is built into Zendesk etc.)

Always on your mind  The best referral driven practices have one thing in common. They communicate with their clients with relevant information as and when they read it. You watch. The referrals just flow in (their connections just don’t get serviced and will be impressed).

Your clients

Have you considered the limitations of your practice?Don’t be a bottleneck for your practice, make sure it can run without you signing every little detail off.

Systems  How hard is it for your way of doing things to add 1 more client?

People  Have you got the right people on board, what’s the average time required to do the next job?

Clients  Is there only 1 point of contact for your clients, do they have an easy way to interact with you?

Goals for your practice  How fast, how big… it’s up to you. Why not >25% p.a.? 100%? Or you may want to keep it small, it’s completely up to you.  

Can you scale?

As a practice owner, this should be your ultimate goal. To be an owner, not a manager.  Practice what you preach  The #1 reason to work towards your obsolescence is to be able to share with your clients how you became obsolete, no matter what model you chose or clients you chose to serve.  Remember entrepreneurs want to be owners and work on the business not in it.  Knowledge  Share your knowledge with your team, don’t be a bottleneck, don’t protect your knowledge, incentivise this sharing at your practice.  People  I started my own accounting practice because I believed that I could do a better job of running an accounting practice and then trusted people.

Make yourself obsolete

TAKE YOUR NAME OFF

THE F^%$’NG DOOR!

There are certain key technologies that you’ll need to have in place to really build value in your practice.  Internal/back office  Practice Management, Tax and DocumentCommunication (chat, email etc.)  Data management  Payables Accounting/ledgerDebtorsPayroll  Client facing  CommunicationsReportingWebsite, social etc.

Key Technology

utilism – the greatest good, for the greatest number.  Help  Help your fellow man, woman and child. Help your family. All your goals should be aligned.  Grow  Grow your practice, grow your clients business, grow your influence to achieve great things.  Access  Access to information is one of the key problems you are here to solve. Better information = better decisions.

Teach  Once again, share your knowledge and pay it forward. This is what entrepreneurship was built on.

Do something that matters

Remember, what you do is important.  Don’t downplay your role in the world. Accountants have the ability to be a huge difference maker, to help entrepreneurs paint the future and help families increase their take home pay, their ability to give to others and their overall happiness (taxes are a huge stress).  

What do you want to tell your grandkids?  

Be Proud. Be a trusted advisor.  Make a difference.

Review, revise and iterate. You are not

done.

This can happen..

0M

0.5M

1M

1.5M

2M

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Or, even this

Decisions to make• Who are your clients?  • How big do you want to grow?  • How will you charge?  • Are your clients happy?  • What can you do to make them happier?  • Can you scale?  • How far are you from being obsolete?  • How do you get there from here and when?

Stand out from the crowd  Whatever you choose, make sure you stand out in the crowd and make sure you have an easy way to explain what you do and for whom you do it.    (e.g. video that changed the game for interactive accounting)  Business model  Work through your path to clients and define what you are about. I recommend you start with the lean canvas model to define your services, your market and your path to growth.  PricingPricing models for fixed fee models are available here, pick the right model that enables ease of sale to your chosen clients or a hybrid, fixed fee for low value and value based for high end work.  • Looking At Pricing Models• How To Price Your Practice• Worksheets To Build Your Practice

Takeaways

Q+Aplease…. don’t leave me up here looking

awkward…..

Thank youpracticeignition.com

@ignitionapp