Business Advisory News For Accountants

This article summarises the 2014/15 Federal government’s budget as it affects SMEs and reflects the type of information subscribers to ESS BIZTOOLS received within 24 hours of the budget being announced by way of a special Business Plus+ Newsletter, which summarises the budget initiative for SMEs. http://blog.essbiztools.com/podcastshownotes/

Never Assume What Your Accounting Firm Clients Know. ESSEducateClientThe key part of offering business advisory services is to ensure you have educated your clients on the types of services your accountancy business is now able to supply. How will your clients know you are offering a wider range of services, other than the traditional annual accounts preparation and the preparation of income tax returns? You shouldn’t assume that your clients know you’re able to supply a wider range of services. blog.essbiztools.com/podcastshownotes/

Over the last few years, there has been considerable publicity about various surveys that have asked SME operators what additional services they might like to receive from accountants and other business advisors.  Unfortunately, in the surveys, many small businesses have indicated that they are not receiving the advice and services they would like to receive. http://blog.essbiztools.com/podcastshownotes/

New Opportunities for Accountants. Opportunities for accountantsTraditionally, accountants didn’t have to worry too much about selling their services.  Most accountancy firms have been able to rely on the income tax return market, to keep their clients coming back each year.  Many accountancy businesses never, ever thought about having a ‘sales strategy’.  Most accountants have relied on ‘word of mouth’, referral from one client to another and the fact that the clients in the main are reluctant to leave accountants, once they’ve established a relationship with them. What about business advisory services, the new area and the new opportunity for accountants? http://blog.essbiztools.com/podcastshownotes/

The first thing you need to do is to identify your target audience. What are their needs?  How can you build a better all-round commercial business relationship with them, so you can offer them additional services that will improve their bottom line and the overall value of their businesses? This doesn’t mean that you have to go out and start marketing to a whole range of prospects.  You need to look at your current client base first.  It’s a generally accepted marketing theory that acquiring new customers can cost up to 10 times more than the cost of retaining your current customers. http://blog.essbiztools.com/podcastshownotes/

I often receive emails and telephone calls from accountants inquiring about the type of services that could be offered to clients under the general heading ‘business advisory services’. My recommendation is that you sit down and have a discussion with a client and ask them: How are they going?  How are their results?    Do they need any more assistance in key areas of their business? http://blog.essbiztools.com/podcastshownotes/

Don’t let anyone tell you that preparation for offering business advisory services to your clients is easy.  It is not.  There’s an old saying, “No pain, no gain,” which is definitely very applicable to preparing your accountancy business to offer business advisory services. The first area to start with is the team.  In the first instance, I recommend that you arrange for a partner or an external facilitator to interview team members, mainly accountants, perhaps some marketing personnel who have been working for you, to see whether they are genuinely interested in meeting the challenges of providing business advisory services. There are some challenges.  They will need to do some additional reading.  They will need to try to immerse themselves into some other industry activity, so they understand the challenges that are facing business operators within those industries. http://blog.essbiztools.com/podcastshownotes/

“Not many people understand the modern professional accountant. Perceptions of a solid, safe measurer and reporter of past historical data persist, when the reality is of an innovative strategic resource advisor.” Alex Malley, Chief Executive of CPA Australia, made this statement recently.  Mr Malley went on to say: “And those most guilty of not having a firm grasp of this are accountants themselves. This places the profession's future relevance and leadership role in a somewhat precarious position.” “The accounting profession has failed to evolve with world needs and expectations. Complacency has hatched and spread through the profession, putting it at risk of losing its rightful leadership position in business and greater society.”  Mr Malley said . What do you think of his views?  Do you think he’s right? http://blog.essbiztools.com/podcastshownotes/

In difficult economic times, government grants can really assist SMEs to do something different, to be creative and to go on a new venture within their business.  At times, some accountants express surprise to me about the number of grants that are available to SMEs in Australia.  There are hundreds of grants, supplied in the main, by the Australian Federal government, every State and Territory government and, these days, some local government organisations, provide grants, incentives and advice worth approximately $5billion per annum. Unfortunately, many small businesses do not know about these grants, because they’re not part of an organisation or a network that keeps its membership informed of the grants and assistance that are available.  Their only source of information is their accountants.  http://blog.essbiztools.com/podcastshownotes/

I want to tell you a story of an event that unfolded at a Smithink 2020 conference at the Gold Coast in February 2013.  The speaker was a partner at an accountancy firm in a capital city.  He indicated that he found out first hand why accountants needed to promote and market their services and not assume their clients knew that accountants can provide more than income tax advice.  He indicated that he had been reviewing the profit and loss account for a client of 15 years.  In the profit and loss account, there was an entry ‘business advice’ for $26,000. He then rang the client and asked him what the expenditure of $26,000 for business advice was for.  The client told him, “I hired a business coach.” The partner of the accounting firm said to the client, “Did you know that we supply those types of services?”... listen for more... http://blog.essbiztools.com/podcastshownotes/

In previous editions, Peter Towers commented on the overall effects of the Personal Property Securities Act (PPSA), which definitely is far-reaching and has caused a great deal of concern to many business operators.  A lot of that concern is because people are not fully aware of the operations of this legislation. I believe accountants, offering business advisory services, need to provide comprehensive advisory services to their clients on the PPSR.  I do not believe accountants can rightfully claim they are the ‘trusted adviser’ to SME operators, unless they play a significant role in assisting their SME clients to comply with this legislation. http://blog.essbiztools.com/podcastshownotes/

In Australia, Dun and Bradstreet has calculated that, at present, the average business has debtors’ outstanding for more than 54 days .  This is 24 days or nearly 80% longer than the traditional 30 days trading terms in Australia. Many businesses do achieve debtors’ days outstanding of 30 days or under, so that means a significant number of Australian SME businesses have debtors’ days outstanding of even higher than 54 days. A significant amount of ‘free cash’ can be achieved by offering proactive assistance on debtors’ management to SMEs.  I envisage that this is a role where accountants, offering a range of business advisory services, can assist their clients to achieve an improvement in debtors’ management.  http://blog.essbiztools.com/podcastshownotes/

Did you know that, according to the CCH survey, ‘SMEs the fine line between failure and success’, the management of costs was identified as the No. 1 concern of small business operators? Has your business identified strategies to assist your SME clients in the management of costs, which is the number one issue confronting small business operator?  http://blog.essbiztools.com/podcastshownotes/

As the trusted advisor to your SME clients, how are you going to deliver a succession planning service to your clients?  If there was a way you could offer a range of products, to assist your clients with this very important aspect of their business careers, and create interesting work for your team, you would want to know about it, wouldn’t you?  http://blog.essbiztools.com/podcastshownotes/  

The new “Personal Property Securities Register” law is now fully operational and some businesses are at major risk.  “Title is no longer King” – businesses risk losing ownership of property if not registered on the PPSR.  Peter Towers discusses types of businesses that are at risk and how accountants can assist in advising SME clients of the danger.  For free material and transcription of this podcast, go to http://blog.essbiztools.com/podcastshownotes/

What is a Chief Financial Officer's role for accountants?  SMEs are looking to their accountants to provide CFO services.  In this podcast Peter Towers discusses the reasons why accountants are the best choice to supply CFO services, and the types of services that accountants could provide as CFOs to SMEs. For free material and transcription of this podcast, go to http://blog.essbiztools.com/podcastshownotes/

The Deloitte report, ‘Digital disruption: short-fuse, big bang?’, forecasts that, over the next 2½ years, professional services including accountancy businesses will suffer a 32% change in business. For free material and transcription of this podcast, go to http://blog.essbiztools.com/podcastshownotes/

The implementation of the Personal Property Securities Register and Personal Property Securities Act is the biggest change in commercial law in 200 years and as a trust advisor to small and medium businesses, you are in a position to assist your clients to safeguard their businesses. For free material and transcription of this podcast, go to http://blog.essbiztools.com/podcastshownotes/

In light of the digital disruption, will your accountancy business be providing non-compliance services that you SMEs are asking for?  For free material and transcription of this podcast, go to http://blog.essbiztools.com/podcastshownotes/

Failure to manage costs as the number one concern of SMEs.  As the trusted advisor, Accountants should provide proactive support and advice to their SME clients.  In this podcast Peter discusses types of cost management and provides some solutions that Accountants can provide their SME clients.  Show Notes and complimentary material at: http://blog.essbiztools.com/podcastncna004/ or list of all podcast show notes at: http://blog.essbiztools.com/podcastshownotes/