5 Ways I Transformed my Business

If I look at my practice now, in 2021, it’s completely different to what I envisaged it would look like in 2012 when I started – and also every year in between.

We start our accountancy practices for many reasons, but we don’t just start them to be busy. Most of us start our practices to give us a better life. This could be more money, more time with our families, less stress or a combination of them all.

Just like many business owners I found that this wasn’t always the case.

Between 2012 and 2016 I made a lot of mistakes and wasted a lot of time. I was busy but not always good busy. Too much admin, too much low level work, inefficient systems, too much variety – just too much!

A crucial turning point came in July 2017 when I was so busy with work I spent the first 3 days on holiday working. I wasn’t happy and my family wasn’t happy.

It had to change.

When I reflected on this a few weeks later I realised the 3 days working on holiday could be traced back to a period which started in September 2016 and continued through to March 2017. I took on 12 great new clients that equated to more than £60,000 in annual fees, this was huge.

But I hadn’t done anything about it at the time; I just carried on as I was, thinking work would be fine, obviously July 2017 showed me it wasn’t. I hadn’t planned and put processes in place to deal with this increase in workload.

This ‘holiday episode’ led me to fundamentally change the structure of my practice and how I spend my working days.

If I look at where I am now, it’s very different. Yes, I’m busy, but good busy. Focus is now on developing my practice further and not just getting through the work.

Yes, I’m still a vital part of the business, and I don’t want to change this. Personal brand and personal profile are important to me. I enjoy the relationship I have with clients, but my team are a vital part of this, they get the real grunt work done.

But now if I take time off from the business work doesn’t grind to a halt. My team, who are incredible, make sure the day to day nitty gritty still gets done. Annual accounts are still being prepared, bookkeeping, payroll and vat all progress without involvement from me. Turnover is higher and profits are up.

The changes I made are in 5 key areas which I’ll be detailing in a series of blog posts over the next couple of weeks.

But before we get to looking at these areas, you need to accept that to make changes you need to really want to change the way you and your practice are working at the moment. You need to be prepared to go through some pain before you get to a better position. If you’re not 100% committed to this, you won’t get the results you want, the results you and your family deserve.

Remember, if running your own business was easy, everyone would do it…

I hope this series helps you to transform your practice in the same way it has and continues to transform mine.

If you’d like to work with Start Accountants to improve your practice/work life balance/help you enjoy work more, please get in touch.

 

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