The Accountants' Recruiter

PEOPLE - YOUR BIGGEST ASSET OR YOUR BIGGEST PROBLEM...... Recruitment is hard - god knows where people are hiding or how they are living, but it feels like it's harder than ever to find people with the right stuff. Ironically however applying for jobs is far too easy. So you get endless applications from: 1. Candidates who don't have the experience or skills despite the job description stating what's required. 2. Candidates who live hundreds of miles away when it clearly says its a office role. 3. Students. 4. Outsourcers Back when I graduated (in the dark ages admittedly!). We had no Internet. Hell - I didn't even have a PC. 1.Had to go to the library to print my CV. 2. Applications required a handwritten covering letter tailored to the job ! 3. Had to pay for a envelope and stamp! So you only applied for ones you thought you had a chance of getting, as it was such an effort to apply. These days you just click a button. Wasting everyone's time. 🤦♂️ If you have the right stuff then please get in touch. See comments for link. If you don't, PLEASE DONT 🙂 🙏

What's your views on this? Or are you already fed up and just want it to happen? What am I talking about? The imminent budget in the UK. This could be the biggest budget for years. The Accountants' Growth Club members have been talking about it now for weeks in our Daily Power Ups. Given how big it is - and the likely Tax Planning opportunities to come from it, this is the advice and help and support we are giving our members. 𝗣𝗿𝗲-𝗯𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘁: Our suggestion is to segment your clients into those who will need a personal call or meeting, those who would appreciate a group meeting, and those who just need an email update. For those that need a personal call, get that call booked in with them for the week after the budget. 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁-𝗯𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘁 This is all about understanding the 'so what'. Members of the club will get our budget briefing pack so they can send out a summary within 24 hours of the chancellor finishing speaking. Then our Daily Power Up call on the 31st Oct will be an hour long special to help members talk through the budget and what does it mean. Finally our members have access to all of the Croner-i budget materials. This means their summary, budget calls and then preferential rates on their VIP tax team service. 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝘅 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀: 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗶𝘀 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼 𝗶𝘁? Our members are very good at giving each other referrals for stuff that isn't their thing. So I expect that our club tax specialists will be busy between now and Christmas with paid work from their client base and the members' client base. However, our members get 10% discount on the VIP tax team service from Croner-i. Just using them once will pay for members of their tax team for the whole 12 months. What's your thoughts? Ready for the budget? Or think it will be a damp squib.

Here's how to do some business development each day - even when you are in back to back meetings I had a day on wednesday filled with client calls. There was hardly room for toilet breaks. But I've set up a commitment with Matt Thomson to do some business development each day. And at 16:30 I need to email him to let him know what I have done. Crikey. My boss is a tough one. As I sat there and planned my day, I thought about how to get some business development done. The big stuff was out such as a lunch or long phone call. But I went to my business development plan to see what could be done. So I: • did the linkedin update and odd 5 mins here and there when waiting for clients to turn up • emailed 5 people on my 'stay in touch list' Having the 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻, 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 and 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 to do business development made it SO much easier to get it done. This is just one of the many nuggets you will find out on 'how to make time for business development' on demand course in our Progress to Partner Academy We've got over 200+ members of the Academy... PS photo of me is 5 years ago when I had short hair and was talking to an audience of professional speakers about how to grow their practice

What do you do when feel the fear and do it anyway doesn’t work? And you need to move past the fear? This is the topic of my latest substack article. In the article I go through a list of the obvious and not so obvious signs and symptoms that fear has become your companion. I then go onto share techniques to help you either rest easy with the fear or move through it. This is relevant to any small business owners who are scaling their business or those taking the step up to partnership. If you have enjoyed the article please read more and then share it. https://lnkd.in/enHYFUAY

This stuff happens. But each time it does, it makes you stronger. Let me explain. My right shoulder is not sitting in the right place. This means it is at best it is clicky, at worst it is very painful and impinging nerves. But I have been here before. I know that the answer lies in strengthening a number of muscles that have got unbalanced and out of alignment. If you see me leaning into a door frame, you will now know why! But that’s the thing. Gaining the experience may be tough. Or in my case occasionally excruciatingly painful. But it makes it much easier next time to find the right answer and deal with it quickly. It’s the same when scaling a practice. The tough times just toughen you up for what else is coming down the line. Do you agree?

This is what a global managing partner of a law firm said when I asked him what's the one thing you should do every week if you want to make partner? Their tip? To go out and have one coffee, lunch, networking meeting, conference or event per week with a potential referrer or client. Oh, and to have the conversation even if you think this person isn't going to lead to work. What would be the one thing you would suggest doing every week if you wanted to make partner? . . . PS We have more of these tips and a course to help you go from coffees to instructions in our Progress to Partner Academy

Not feeling like working? But need to show up and be present? Here’s my latest advice on what to do when you need to do a day’s work but would prefer to be hiding under the duvet. Let me know what you think! If you find it valuable please subscribe - I write weekly on topics for small business owners wanting to grow and scale their business. https://lnkd.in/e8gw7PYx

If I could only pick 1 business development strategy for accounting firm owners it would be this.... Not posting Not cold calling Not networking Not SEO It would be a client service strategy. All day. Every day. After all, how many other professionals or business owners can rely on clients sticking around for years? And having a legal requirement for your services? And being generally really well connected to other like-minded potential clients? Just stop for a moment and think. How much time and effort do you put into winning new clients? If you took that time and effort to: • Ensure you were delivering a great client service on every job • Have KPIs that prompted action around great client service • Formalise what good client service looks like in your processes via your work flow tool • Train your team and get them bought into what great client service looks like? • Do a client portfolio analysis which prompted the right people getting the 'extra love' • Ditch any clients which were no longer right for your firm How many more client referrals would you get through the door? Would it be that magically, 4-8 client referrals every month, which then over 80% convert? And those are figures that The Accountants' Growth Club members tell us they are achieving by working on this strategy. And this is why our growth assessment specifically looks at client service as a mechanism for growth and scaling. If you want to do this free assessment click on the 'work with me' link at the top of my profile. So what's stopping you from doing this? #accountingandaccountants #clientservice #scaling #growth ?? Want to know more? Click on the '𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝗲' link at the top of my profile

Turnover stuck around £250k? You are not alone. Here's what Paul Donno did to unstick his growth and then triple the size of his business in 5 years. At Accountex, I asked Paul, founder of 1accounts, what he did to move out of being stuck at £250k. His answer? Bring in people to take stuff off you. But invest in them. If you carry on doing everything and don't invest in a strong team beneath you, you will struggle to get your practice over £400k without resorting to doing an acquisition. In fact, as Paul talks about, getting your role and responsibility right is key to unlocking your firm's growth and then ability to scale. Changing your role and responsibility is just 1 of the 11 categories we look at to see if your firm is ready to grow and scale. We've even done a quick 5 min, 22 question assessment with a fully personalised report for you to do for free to see what is stopping your firm from growing and scaling. Click here to do the assessment: https://lnkd.in/eFDuyrPc What has helped you unlock your growth and ability to scale your practice? #accountingandaccountants #scaling #growth