In business, everyone is here to win. You want to earn profits and provide the desired lifestyle for your family, but you also need the right people by your side, you need a great advisor and a great accountant who is there supporting you every step of the way. Watch my video or read below to find out more.
Find the right support
We don’t all of us have every single skill in our locker, and neither should you. But you need to ensure that the people around you have complementary skills that can help you make good decisions in your business and help you provide for the future.
Let me give you an example. I’m going to talk about Sam; Sam runs a technology company that has services and sells products as well at the same time.
Sam is really good at techy stuff; really good understanding the products and how they benefit his customers.
But he doesn’t understand exactly what finances are needed within the business, how well it runs and how well it takes.
So it’s really important that Sam has that accountant next to him to provide the complementary skills they need, what margin should they be earning? What profit should they be earning? How are they making opportunities with tax planning on taking money out of the business, and how well are the balance sheet and cash flow managed? All these are fundamental to a small business.
Small businesses don’t have the opportunity of getting a full-time finance director, and it’s just not necessary because it’s not a full-time job. And also, the budget would squash any other opportunities they’ve in the business. But it doesn’t mean you can’t have one part-time or when needed.
Expertise
An accountant is going to bring expertise; they’re going to know exactly, financially, what it will take for you to be successful in your business or not. And loads of small business owners understand a little bit of their accounts but not a lot. The accountant is there to provide support, which could be knowledge, and also advice on whether you’re doing really well or not doing well. Because in any business, there’ll be certain indicators financially on whether it’s, that’s going to be important, whether it’s going to be successful or not. There are also going to be non-financial indicators that are going to show whether the business is successful or not. So Sam does a lot of telephone systems; a key indicator for them that’s nonfinancial is how much their downtime is. So if the telephone systems are down, and people can’t make calls, her customers are going to be really annoyed, they won’t be able to make calls, there’ll be losing opportunities, it’s, it’s going to be terrible.
So, one of the key non-performance indicators that will have a massive impact on their business is how much downtime they have with their technology.
These vary from business to business to business. A classic is an estate agent with valuations, which are the most important. For an accountant like us, turnaround times are massive, too. So make sure that you’re concentrating on the right financial data, as well as the non-financial data, that will mean your business is going towards success.
And yes, these do sometimes change depending on where you are in your business cycle and what your current business goals are at the time that you’re working towards these.
Time saving
Someone managing your finances will save you more time, and you can focus on your business. You’re an expert in construction, recruitment, or property. But who says that you need to understand double-entry bookkeeping? Or how to process things on Xero, how to analyse stuff?
All this takes a lot of time. And is your time best spent doing this? Or could it be best spent doing something else? So if you’ve got a bookkeeper, or if you’ve got an accountant to do it, could you earn more by doing something else? This is something that is really overlooked by loads of business owners because if they actually assessed how effective they are by doing other things, could that actually help them make more money.
And the accountant is likely to do it in a fraction of the time that you would. So, by getting rid of your finances and your bookkeeping, could you actually be saving loads of time that can be invested in something that’s just a hell of a lot better.
Peace Of Mind
Many small business owners are genuinely frightened of finance and their accounts.
By getting an external adviser or accountant to help with your finances and bookkeeping, could give you peace of mind. Imagine when that weight is lifted off your shoulders, and you can just concentrate on your business. It will help you grow your business even further.
Cost effective
You might think about how it can be cost-effective when accountants charge you for their services.
Don’t forget, if you’ve got a professional completing your bookkeeping and accounts, they will be doing this as professionals, and there’ll be less chance of mistakes and errors. And yet again, you will have more time to build your business.
compliance
Sam, in the technology business, one of their real passions is about getting everything right.
So, by making sure that you’re staying compliant, from an accounting point of view, by having someone that keeps you compliant and keeps you legal takes the stress away and allows you to concentrate more on business.
I know this because I’ve spoken to Sam about this many times. It’s really powerful for them, and it’s something that they’ve really respected about our service.
Strategic planning
With Sam, we sit down regularly, and we’ll start off by making sure that we’re still clear on the goals.
What I will do as part of the meeting is I will challenge some of the things that they’re doing within their business. And yes, it’s a bit uncomfortable. And no, it’s not just to be annoying. This is about how I can motivate them and provoke them into just being better.
From a Strategic planning point of view, I know that the team at MDH will have a massive impact on helping them create their plans, which will then benefit their financial future by also knowing a certain amount of provoking and a certain amount of challenging and a certain amount of care and compassion. This will help Sam make the best decisions that they can do that allow the company to be the most successful it can be.
So when you’ve got an accountant, make sure that they’re not just counting the numbers; make sure they’re also helping you with really good strategic planning that takes you into the future.
Indicating problems
Indicating problems can come from a variety of sources. It can be noticing margins, falling profits, and how badly the Directors Loan Account has been battered with personal expenses or getting into wrong transactions.
About a year ago, we were having phone calls from our construction clients saying that they could do R&D tax planning claims. The reality is that they can’t claim this, as they haven’t created anything new; this was a salesperson trying to sell them stuff.
Sometimes, business owners are targeted for certain tax reliefs that may not be claimable. This is something that we will give feedback on because that part is being proactive as an accountant and advisor; we want to make sure that we’re giving them advice that helps them.
And that will be suggesting ideas, and strategies, that we can help them improve their bottom line, whether that’s in profit, or saving in tax, but it’s also making sure they are not jumping into stuff that might not be quite legitimate.
It’s not just about counting the numbers. It’s not just about doing your year-end tax return.
It’s not just about doing your accounts and everything right at the deadline. This is real life, real people, real feelings, real emotions, real lives.
If I can help you at all, click my discovery call below. This gives you a 30-minute call with me. I can take on board any questions that you’ve got our promise is there’ll be no pushy sales pitch, and you never know, we might end up working together.
