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Welcome to April 2007, the last quarter of the 2007 financial year! After a very successful Leadership Advanced Practice Management 3 days at Hamilton Island with 110 in attendance I would like to thank our sponsors MFS, BCFS and Great Southern plus our guest speakers Rob Nixon, Michael Papandrea, Aldo De Luca, Matt Richards, Petar Lackovic, Lenard Whittaker and our magnificent team at GPL for what was a truly fantastic event! Leadership APW 2007 proved to be that a number of accounting firms still needed assistance with the mindset change of developing new skills to take on consulting work, or as I would like to describe it, moving from the ‘Accountant to the Strategist’. It’s an article I wrote August last year and it’s still a hot topic for an Accountant wanting to make that transition to the Strategist or Chief Financial Officer for their client. This month I will continue to share my insight to how you can CHANGE the way you present yourself for greater job satisfaction, less clients and more profits! Finally, I will also share with you a brand new DVD/CD training product and our ‘Getting the RIGHT TEAM On the Bus’ series of workshops for your entire team! Enjoy the read!
Paul Jansz
The Accountant or the Strategist? For a number of GPL Network Member Firms, this transition has come at an impressive price! It’s my belief that for a number of accounting firms throughout Australia the biggest fear of creating idle capacity for the Partners or the Sole Practitioner is, “What will I do now?”… At Leadership APW at Hamilton Island last week I used a theme, “THINGS do not change, WE change!” It’s the mindset of the Partners and Directors in our industry that has to change and accounting firms and Partners in particular need to focus on value adding and value pricing to create something different in the market place and not continue to devalue the value you provide to the market with the hourly rates you charge. This is where I believe the role of the ‘Accountant’ can turn to the ‘Strategist’ and the role of the Partner can move to the role of the ‘Pseudo Chief Financial Officer’. The Chief Financial Officer’s (CFO) role has become an integral part of a company’s strategic and commercial objective. The fact is, not many company’s in the SME market place can afford to pay a CFO upwards of $120,000 p.a. therefore a real opportunity exists for Partners of accounting firms to become more aware of their clients needs from a strategy and commercial point of view. This is a combination of technical, commercial and strategic knowledge in tandem with mentoring skills. Partners and Directors of accounting firms should be viewing this as a massive opportunity to increase the average fee of your client within your own client base. A number of GPL Network firms that have adopted this mindset have already seen benefits in setting a strategic plan to become this person within your clients business. This has seen the increase in the average fee from $5,000 to $50,000, and still a significant saving to your client. Here is a fantastic testimonial from a Sydney based 2 Partner firm on the day the Partners returned after 3 days attending our Leadership APW at Hamilton Island. “I just came out of a meeting to sign up my first consulting client! The client agreed to $2,500 upfront (budgeting & planning), $6,000 for year end work and $1,500 a month for monthly financial reporting and meetings. Good start, feeling great and I used the principles I learnt last week to get across the line. Even better, rather than thinking – “How am I going to do all this work?”, I am thinking “Who am I going to give this work to?”. Thanks again, Peter Lever In listed companies the CFO plays the crucial communications role to inform the markets and stakeholders. In the SME market, which most of your clients are in, who plays this role? Who is the most trusted advisor? YOU are! In the past handling the monthly management accounts for the general manager or CEO has gone and a new era has entered for the CFO to play more of an intimate relationship for the CEO and be there as a sounding board. CFO’s are in the hot seat as they ensure their company/organisation (your clients in this case) is fully compliant with all relevant laws, regulations and guidelines. As a result the demand and real time opportunities exist for compliance & commercial demands of your clients. If you can provide this service I believe a lot more of your clients will have a greater handle on their numbers. It will be your role of the Partner to ask ‘why’ when acting in this role. Identifying 10 clients and having them agree to what Peter Lever managed to do (as above) have the potential to add an additional $200k in revenue without bringing on one new client’s… The potential is there, you just need to change the way you think and communicate with your clients. So, where do I start I hear you say?
NEW TRAINING PRODUCT Revolutionise the way you think and manage your current group of clients with this 15 Point Training Product to Increasing Your Average Fee per Client from $3,000 per year to $20,000 per year. NEW TEAM WORKSHOP SERIES
More than 500 people from 8 venues attended these workshops last year with tremendous results in the way team members think and act in the work place, and we are confident of these workshops having another massive impact on your team. To book your table of 8, go to www.gplnetwork.com and look for the fast bus flying across the screen! Purchase 5 tickets and receive the 6th free of charge @ $395 per ticket! Dates range from mid May to mid June in your capital city… All the best to Sami Rutherford:
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GPL's Top Performing Accounting Firms Steven Jones –
SRJ (Brisbane) Richard Munro Jason Cunningham
– The Practice (Melbourne) Bernadette Pitcher
– BMP Accounting Services (Melbourne) Michael Papandrea
– Wilson Watt Papandrea (Canberra) |
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