How having a vision gave us the courage to take risks and the resilience to handle mistakes

With hindsight I often wonder “what I was thinking when things went wrong or didn’t work out as planned”. At the moment I am in the middle of renovating an investment property and I am re-living every experience (including mistakes and successes) I made during my 10 years in practice. And I’m making them in supersonic speed because I’m attempting to do the whole renovation in a six week block!

When I first started on the journey to become a value add service firm, like my reno we had no more than a plan. We had never done managment consulting or business advisory work, we just knew something had to change and VAS was the way we wanted to go. In other words we were fired up and ready to go with what seemed a great plan. Below is a list of all the things I did…

What I’ve done…

ditched time sheets (enabling our growth to proceed much faster by communicating value in a much more effective way)
Moved from time billing to value pricing
Sacked Clients – let go of clients that were not a fit for us
Sold Clients – bundled a parcel of small clients and sold them to a competitor
bought & merged practices
sold a business development program (before I had developed it)
lost a $45k p.a. client by trying to sell a service outside our skill set
moved from 95% compliance to 40% VAS, 60% compliance
turned prospects away because they wouldn’t buy VAS
stepped away from the day-to-day of client work
handed clients over to managers and senior people
developed products (VAS)
created repeatable systems & processes, and sold those products to other clients
sacked a partner (twice)
left that practice because I’d achieved what I wanted to achieve
set up an employee bonus and equity scheme
employed management consultant within the business so we could roll out to our clients (employed outside normal accounting competencies)
failed at creating a financial planning business (and recovered it through offering management consulting services that positioned risk and financial investment) “we stopped selling financial products and started helping them with their business and personal wealth”
scrapped our traditional org structure and created one that freed partners up for high value strategic work
appointed our own board of management including chairman and advisor from outside the accounting and financial planning industry
Engaged and listened to coaches and consultants of the industry
we took risks and made mistakes
we implemented
Got bigger, growth of 40% in one year – 30% VAS to existing clients
Persevered through the tough times, and the frustrating ones,
we relished in the rewards and the good times had.

Each of these were accomplished despite roadblocks, mistakes and failures. And all came from the experience of owning a practice that went from 1.2M to $6M and doing 50% VAS.

Reflecting on this now, I realise that it was a vision that helped us keep going despite some setbacks.

Consider this…

Any plan will only be as good as the knowledge and experience of those who make it.
ie. If you have never done VAS then the plan is really your draft action plan that could, and will, change constantly.

Mistakes actually help you more than the cost of the mistake.
Like last week’s TA, we purchased thousands of dollars worth of tools that sat on the shelf and we lost work that now I would win in a heart beat.

Enthusiasm is often the real reason your clients will use you, not what experience you think you have or don’t have.
We did a $120,000 state government negotiation for one of our clients having never negotiated before nor had the intimate knowledge of the industry.

Develop your Vision, plan your growth and maintain forward momentum

I work with Accountants to grow their practices and help them to transition to the next level and implement VAS… by applying the lessons I learned over 20 years across all levels of practice.

My specialities are in team structuring for ultimate leverage, foundations for delivering VAS and practice management that drives 50% profitability, partner development and strategic growth planning.

My initial consult gives you:

15 minutes to discuss your current position, your goals & roadblocks (just discussing this with someone who has been there before can be of huge benefit & can show you the next step you need to take right now),
a greater understanding of whether you can benefit from my experience,
the next vital action step required to grow your practice or advance your career,
Insight into the unique challenges you and your practice are facing (note your roadblocks now so we can discuss them and you can begin planning your way through them)
PLUS…. it’s FREE. No charge, no obligation. Just a chance to discuss your growth and how you can achieve it.

Use the link below to view available spots in my calendar, book yourself in and submit some details on your current position so you can maximise on your session.