Runagood® Business Systems doubles a practice size in 2 years
How?
By turning it into a business.
I met Matt Freeman FCA in 2020 when he prospected me for his compliance and financial services through a series of well-crafted emails that motivated me to take his call when it came.
Straight away he wanted to know all about Runagood® and was a very good listener. After a while he said, “I’ll pay you for a Business Dashboard® assessment on my practice” and I said, “I’ll do it for free” because I loved the sound of him. After which he asked, “have you got any accountants doing this in the Brighton area?” I hadn’t, so he said he said “right let’s get going, I’ve always wanted to scale up into business advisory and I’ve just seen how”
9 months in, he and a senior accountant had mastered everything we could teach them about consultancy and coaching as we had worked with their real businesses, and they had become wholly proficient in using Runagood® technology with clients and prospects alike. Alongside this the outsourced marketing continued, adding new clients every month who all got the ‘Runagood® treatment’.
Then Matt had an epiphany moment. He realised the classic practice structure of each accountant working for a group of dedicated clients in a common office with shared admin would limit growth and profits. The only way it could go was lateral, hiring more and more accountants to service more and more clients with him getting further away from them, and grappling with the growing burden of him alone managing marketing, operations, systems, people, finance and growth. He could also see that the ROI would plateau forever.
I proposed a business growth plan (as opposed to a static practice plan) that would set objectives, define strategies, identify actions and procedures and allocate responsibilities. Then we would redesign the organisation structure as the main plan implementation mechanism. In other words, we would fit the people to the plan, not the other way around.
And so it was that we researched the market identifying the 3000 local businesses that met Matt’s criteria for a desirable client, then spoke to existing clients and suppliers to find what was good and bad about the practice. We learned that Matt wanted to be a top 100 practice within 10 years, a noted public speaker and that his wife Charlie wanted them to be world travellers when the kids are old enough for boarding school.
On a cold bright day in January 2022, we gathered the whole team together on Brighton seafront, shared our findings and did a heavy and very frank SWOT session. The overwhelming conclusions were that clients were buying Matt then never seeing him again and that the team were unclear how to perpetuate these feelings and relationships that had brought so many new clients on board. The strong opinion was that there should be an Operations Manager appointed from outside, somewhat in Matt’s mould to drive customer care and productivity. And that each client cohort of 150 should be managed by a ‘pod’ of 3, Senior, Junior, and Business Advisor, with specific roles in getting to know their clients and their needs very well.
We also concluded that Matt and Charlie ought to have a personal plan that would mesh with the business plan so there would be no clashes of priority and friction.
We drew up the plans in much detail identifying measurable Objectives, Strategies, Action Plans, Procedures, backed them with budgets, named who would be responsible for what and designed management accounts and KPI reports. Implementation commenced and Jamie, the new Ops Manager was given his part of the business plan, Charlie the People Plan and Debbie the bookkeeper, was tasked with independent KPI reporting overall.
Matt learned how let go of Operations and People, leaving him responsible for the Marketing, Systems, and Finance objectives. Free freed from client work he was able to rely on reporting and reviews to manage the business through weekly KPI reports and monthly management meetings to review management accounts, budget variances and to approve actions to deal with underperformances.
Everyone got a job description that linked accountabilities to their part of the business plan and identified the necessary knowledge, skill, attitude to deliver what was expected. These in turn linked to performance appraisals that identified training and development needs, adding up to a dynamic training plan.
This wasn’t and isn’t a bureaucratic process as all the documents mentioned here passed the ‘1SOP test’ ie ‘one sheet of paper’ and all meetings controlled to not last more than 60 minutes. Simply a matter of knowing what everyone must do, whether they are doing it and if not, fixing it.
Then another Runagood® accountant partner called with an urgent request to find a buyer for his practice because of a family crisis. Because acquisitions were one of Matt’s identified growth strategies in his plan and there was a logical fit, the deal was done in 4 weeks raising the client base by 25%. The Ops Manager and his team coped, no clients were lost and most of them were upgraded to monthly direct debits at higher rates.
Today this is no longer a practice but a ‘business services business’ and Matt is a CEO on a mission. Sales have doubled and the remaining 2400 local businesses are now being specifically targeted by his ongoing marketing. Profits have doubled and been reinvested into growth whilst the team has grown by only 30%, so a big rise in productivity and asset value.
The Operations ‘engine room’ is humming, Systems have been all integrated, People are being recruited into the professional training programme (AAT / ACA) and pods are delivering Compliance services whilst gently upselling Runagood® Financial and Business Management services into all clients at regular review sessions.
Matt is going places – heading for a top 100 practice and uniquely using business principles to do so. He says “I always knew what I wanted and now I’m doing it, but it needed this new technology and knowledge to take the necessary steps. And having put my own business through the Runagood® Pathway we can confidently and profitably do the same for our clients”.
