Let’s Have a Review
Dear Accountant,
Step 19 LET’S STOP AND REVIEW…
As you know I’ve revealed 18 steps so far (see previous posts here) to take you from accountant to permanent ‘trusted advisor’ with your business clients. That means you gradually acquiring consultancy skills as well as mastering Runagood® technology while you work ‘hands on’ with them.
But why so many steps? Just one of the questions I’m often asked. And here are more:
How much of my time will it take to learn all this stuff?
Will I make enough money from advisory to make the time investment worthwhile?
Why must I risk this with my precious clients rather than experiment with prospects?
Why do I have to load the data manually, can’t you automate it?
Why doesn’t Runagood® tech integrate with my accounting software?
So let me respond with a short essay…
Your learning experience is paced at the rate you choose not at the pace of my posts to you! Typically, 1-2 hours per week, per topic, all of it practical work with clients. So, a single investment with a double ROI.
Your financial return will start to show within months and build up to more than 100% of existing compliance fees per client. Small businesses spend more on business advice than on accountancy, but until you show them otherwise, they will continue to believe that you only do compliance and keep buying (poor) advice elsewhere.
Starting with your existing clients means that you have the open door of access + trust. Selling business advice to a new prospect is near impossible as any consultant will admit after a few drinks. Business owners only buy it from people they know and trust. Like you.
Consultancy technology didn’t exist until we invented it, so bears no resemblance to accounting software, despite the hype of the providers. We can provide an API to the client’s bookkeeping system to instantly load a Business Dashboard® but then you learn nothing. By thinking about each question (there are only 19) you gain background knowledge which is essential to understanding the business, the origins of its numbers and its owner, like never before.
The fundamental difference between accountancy and consultancy is the factual and historic, versus the futuristic and speculative. The Runagood® Business System seeks answers that reveal imponderables such as, where the business is headed, the processes being used, expectations for the coming year and management market rates. None of which are in the accounting system.
The biggest challenge is mindset in making the transition. It’s about developing an ability to listen, ask and wonder what your client really wants from being in business and using Runagood® readymade solutions that secure you as the forever, ‘Trusted Advisor’.
It’s not rocket science, but a way of thinking that helps you to understand the nuts and bolts of business consultancy, leading to a high value practice.
Do you have another question? Just ask and I’ll publish the answer.
Meanwhile my next post will deal with what happens after you’ve set up your client with budgets, management accounts and review meetings and how to interpret the trends to identify more advisory work.
With kind regards from,
Duncan
Founder
Duncan Collins founded Runagood® to make practical solutions affordable for owner managers profitably for accountancy practices by pioneering AI. He has automated the 000’s of consultancy techniques he learned the hard way during 60 years of directly and indirectly running, helping, buying, selling one million businesses large and small. Ask him anything, anytime for free at duncan@runagood.com
The ‘Runagood® Business Pathway’ takes any client from start up to exit solving their every ambition and problem along the way.
…via a National Accountant Network.