5 strategies to secure your accountancy firm’s future

Any accounting practice owner will know that their firm’s health, growth, and success relies on good leadership, and therefore good strategy. It tackles roadblocks, makes business success more likely, and enables you to achieve the most with your team.
For example: A focus on strategic health helped a firm grow from £19million to £30million (with no acquisitions) in 4 years. A start up used the 8 questions of strategy to grow from £140,000 year one fees into £680,000 year four fees. Strategic health works.

The common thread? Strategy functions to secure your firm’s future.

That’s why, in this blog, we’re bringing you five strategies you need to secure your firm’s future, directly from Doug and Paul’s new book.

Based on their experiences of working with many accounting firms, their new book asks eight strategic questions which help you make decisions to future-proof your accountancy firm. They aim to guide you through the steps to achieve the goals of your key stakeholders.

In this blog, we cover a few of their key points, including:

• How to set clear goals for the future and what this can do for you
• Why knowing your practice’s purpose matters
• How to offer the services your clients need and want
• How to set clear objectives—and achieve them!

We’re running a special offer where you can fill in your details to get a free copy of the book sent to you—on a first-come-first served basis.

Read on to learn how to claim your free copy of ‘Your Firm’s Future?’.

1.    Have a clear vision of the future

“Just as you’d be sure of your destination when setting out on a car journey,” Doug and Paul say, “establishing clarity on where your firm is headed provides direction for everyone in the firm. Be clear about what your future firm looks and feels like, and you build a meaningful and motivational connection for everyone.”
While the benefits of a defined vision are clear, there’s also a lot at stake without a clear vision. For example, firms risk making the wrong decisions and moving in the wrong direction. 
This doesn’t just affect your business’ results, but your credibility as a leader and your team’s trust in you.

Build a vision by:

• Using targeted KPIs to show your team what success should look like, and drive people towards this shared vision.
• Using feelings and pictures to build a vision of the future—Paul and Doug like to think of this as your ‘vivid vision’, as it’s clearly defined.
• Asking yourself questions such as “what do you want your team to feel and say in five years' time?” or “What do you want clients to say and feel in five years' time?”.
• Go long and think bigger—this means the numbers for the next five years should be clear and be ambitious.
• Challenging the status quo and thinking outside the box.

Paul’s top tip: It’s not just about the numbers. Numbers alone do not give you a clear vision. More is required if you’re to build a sense of excitement and motivation about your firm’s future. Know what success looks like and use this to give your team a sense of direction.

2.    Know your purpose

In the book, it's said that “knowing your purpose and how it pays off for your team and you clients has immense and long-lasting power”.
A purpose-led approach works for many businesses—it's what keeps both the leaders, team and the clients engaged. It works for large companies such as Google, Patagonia, and Unilever, but it works for accountancy practices too.
Research shows that purpose-oriented companies report 30% higher levels of innovation and 40% higher levels of workforce retention than their competitors.

How can you identify a purpose to guide your practice?
 

• Aim to state your position and purpose in eight words—if you can’t, you aren’t there yet.
• Ask yourself “what do we stand for?”. This is an emotive and difficult question, but it’s also fundamental to why you’re here doing what you do every day. Let it guide you and your work.
• Examine the impact, purpose, and meaning behind what you do, not just ‘being an accountant’. This differentiation helps you find your purpose.
• Build a definition of meaningful work—this adds not just meaningful connections to your work, but also a strategic advantage and team buy-in.

Request your free copy of Doug and Paul’s book to read real-world examples of business purposes, and what they achieved for each company.

Paul’s top tip: Purpose is a daily reminder to every team member about what you’re trying to achieve beyond the numbers work. Purpose unlocks discretionary effort that builds productivity, innovation, and a brighter future. Take purpose seriously, because it benefits all aspect of business, not just financials—you've got to mean it!

3.    Establish what matters to your clients

Your clients are at the heart of everything you do—this is no secret. But, are you connecting with them and their needs to the best of your ability? And are you using these needs to drive strategy and future-proof your accounting practice?

Paying clients are essential for success, so you can’t ignore this obvious element of strategy.

Let’s try one of Doug and Paul’s exercises:

In a rapidly changing world, Doug and Paul ask, “What could the three things ‘stable in time’ be for your clients—today, tomorrow, and in the future?”.
This question helps identify what clients can always expect to experience and feels when working with your practice.

You can then focus on delivering these three things exceptionally.

For example, for Jeff Bezos, his clients’ ‘three things stable in time’, include rapid delivery, low prices, and a vast selection. 
Now apply this exercise to your firm. What do your clients want, and how can you consistently deliver this?

Once you’ve established this your marketing and sales messaging becomes clearer; your offering is better suited to your audience; and your recruitment and training programmes are suited to your goals.

Paul’s top tip: Change is inevitable. You must change if you’re to rectify current and future challenges facing your firm. You must also be able to respond to shifts if you’re to deliver on your firm’s core purpose. Yes, stay focused on your vision, remain agile, AND be sure to deliver on what really matters to your clients’.

4.    Understand your roadblocks

Failing to understand your challenges and roadblocks will guarantee setbacks over the next five years, even if you’re able to turn a blind eye for now. 
“To secure team buy-in and make strategy truly work,” Doug and Paul say, “you must acknowledge the issues, difficulties, and challenges that you and your firm are facing.”

To get started on your practice’s challenges and roadblocks you could:

• Identify which one day-to-day challenge needs tackling at your firm
• Identify which one strategic health challenge needs tackling now
• Identify which one future challenge needs attention

Knowing these three challenges sets you up for choosing which challenge to focus on now. Request your free copy of ‘Your Firm’s Future?’ to tackle your firm’s strategic challenges with an eight-question strategic health analysis.

Paul’s top tip: Be very clear about where your firm is at now, warts and all! Acknowledging the challenges—both internal and external—provides insights and clarity for making good strategic decisions and for taking the right action. A good old-fashioned SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis can influence your thinking and offer a good place to start.

5.    Set clear objectives and key results (OKRs)

The previous four strategies have focused mainly on understanding your practice strategy. However, to enact that strategy, you need to measure clear metrics and track results. Otherwise, how will you know how you’re doing?

“One of the major benefits of looking at a strategy in quarterly chunks is that your team see that something is actually being accomplished,” Doug and Paul say.

Doug and Paul’s four simple steps to bring your strategy to life:

• Establish your strategy.
• Work out two to three possible OKRs or KPIs.
• Decide on one thing that should take priority and commit to a clear objective for the next 13 weeks.
• Schedule weekly diary time for doing what’s needed to achieve these results.

Paul’s top tip: Avoid multiple priorities each quarter. As the saying goes ‘...chase two rabbits and you’ll catch neither’. Be brutal in deciding on your top and singular strategic priority. Focus on one thing, and act on it relentlessly that quarter until the objective is achieved.

Follow these five tips to shape your strategy, and your firm will stand in good stead for the future. Want to learn more?

To request your free copy of ‘Your Firm’s Future?’ by Doug Aitken and Paul Shrimpling, fill in the form below.

Please note this offer operates on a first-come-first-served basis.