Category: Balance

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Would you buy a discounted parachute?

It’s a question that Brad Burton asked which got me thinking. (So I hope it will get you thinking too)

Why do we assume that we need to be cheap to be attractive?

Quality is often more important than price. Yes, at Minerva we can use software to churn out accounts fairly cheaply but business advice is much more valuable and that takes time to understand the client’s business. It’s hard to be reactive, let alone proactive, on a tiny budget.

What could you do better in your business if you had a little more time or money to put in? And how much more valuable would that appear to your ideal customers?

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Aaaaand I’m back!

This is a bit of a personal one.

After 5 years of debilitating ‘women’s problems’ (not a secret but you probably don’t want the details so just take it from me that it made life seem twice as hard as previously) my recent surgery means I’m now feeling more energised and enjoying life again.

It’s been a long drag but I’m so please that I’ve succeeded in spite of this and it’s all down to discipline and doing the right things

So, what is happening?

1. My third book, ‘Changing the Numbers: how to deliver advisory services for success’ has launched and been shortlisted in the Business Book Awards. I’ve also been giving talks and training on the topic.
2. I’m expanding Minerva Accountants so watch this space
3. I’m opening up more coaching slots (group and individual).
4. Online courses are still available but you will be able to start any time and combine this with a rolling 6 months of group coaching. No more missing out on the start of a cohort.

As always there’s lots of free stuff available for those who want a taster but also for those who can’t afford me yet – Join us for any of the free webinars here.

But it’s not just about me. There is a lesson for all of us:

– discipline gets you through when motivation is lacking
– doing the right things gets you the right results
– coaching can provide the clarity to see what the right things are for your business and gives the accountability to follow through
– support through menopause can help the women in your life to keep achieving their best (thanks Lauren Chiren for your talks that made it clear that I wasn’t ready to retire)

If I can help you please get in touch. I’m looking forward to catching up and I still enjoy a pot of tea.

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People are more important than things

People are more important than things

This is one of my fundamental beliefs although it may sound a little odd for an accountant who primarily advises people how to grow their business and/or how to make it more profitable. But many of the techniques we use to make a business less dependent on its owners in order to scale are the same ones that we use to make owners less essential so that they can have a better work life balance.

It is really important to me WHO I work with as it’s about far more than money. While it is important to enjoy our work I also believe that we do our best work for people we like and where we are a good fit. That’s why I only accept about half the people who ask me about coaching.

Sometimes it’s the wrong type of business, or they require different expertise, or it may just be that I don’t feel a connection. Because if you don’t trust me you won’t follow my advice. Not that you have to follow my advice but it would be a waste of your money and my time if you NEVER followed my advice.

One element of what helps to develop a connection is shared values.

We donate 1% of our turnover to charity, we make a donation to fund a day’s education for everybody who attends our free webinars (we like to think that it will encourage the right sort of people to attend), we run a paperless office and, when we can’t avoid travel, we offset. Not surprisingly many of our clients also include charitable donations such as 1% for charity and 1% for sustainability. Or they’re members of B1G1 doing business for good.

So, if you’d like to help a girl to receive a day of education please join us for our series of Better Business webinars (for accountants and bookkeepers) or Money Matters webinars for other business owners. Details here.
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Are you too available?

Emails, phone calls, texts, messaging systems of every kind! Are we making ourselves too available at the expense of actually getting the work done?

I know lots of accountants suffered from this during covid with Friday evening announcements raising lots of client queries via multiple channels but it is often and issue even now.

We’re often encouraged to be available to clients the way THEY want to communicate but it’s a lot easier if we can streamline those communications.

This is how we control incoming communications at Minerva Accountants:

Mobile – This is not on my business cards. I guard my number and rely on voicemail when I’m in meetings or deep work. I block people who ring repeatedly but don’t leave a message.

Landline – this is a VOIP number which goes straight to my answering service (Answer-It.co.uk if you need a recommendation). They answer it professionally, get rid of sales calls, and email any genuine messages.

Calendly – I encourage people to book calls directly in my diary using calendly.com and so far only one person has abused this to book a sales call. Calendly links with my diary and only offers times when I am free. It emails me when a booking is made as well as putting the appointment in my diary. All bookings are for a phone call unless there is a reason to Zoom.

Webchat – this is run by real people (MeluChat.com) not bots so they can deal with some queries, book calls via calendly and email me messages.

Social media messaging systems – I’m careful who I connect with and block people who spam me this way. My usual response is to encourage people to book a call via Calendly or refer them to my website. As we have a lot of scheduled posts (we use Smarterqueue) people assume that this is an easier way to contact me but emails are always best.

WhatsApp – I don’t use this for business at all.

Course signups – these are all automated through the main website or through Thinkific. I only speak to people that we need to vet for our coaching and more expensive courses as I don’t want them to waste their money. Sign ups are forwarded to me by email and also linked to our CRM system (Active Campaign).

Emails – my favourite as I can review them when I’m free, forward them if I choose to delegate the task, link them to our practice management software, and there is a written record of what was said.

I don’t have notifications set for any of these systems as I log into emails and social media at least once a day to check for messages at a time that suits me.

To simplify outgoing communications we use helpsheets and videos. Clients often have similar queries. Whenever a client asks a question that I think may be asked again we create a Helpsheet or a training video that we can send to everybody who asks in future. It saves a lot of time and allows at least some of the replies to be delegated.

How do you control your communications in and out?

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Connecting with people

Have you read ‘The 5 Love Languages’ by Gary Chapman? He talks about the 5 main ways that people demonstrate their love and how they prefer to receive love. It can be applied to all sorts of relationships including parenting. My favourite is acts of service, so I like to do things for people I care for, hence the cooking. I’m not a great gift giver so those thoughtful people who show affection by giving beautifully wrapped gifts probably think I’m a bit reserved.

As always we need to understand how other people view the world so that we can communicate with them in a way that they understand.

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How do you make big decisions?

Some people make quick decisions and some people prefer to take their time. Some people make good decisions and others not so good. In my experience the amount of time taken to reach a decision doesn’t show much correlation with the quality of the decision.

When faced with big decisions what do you do?

I usually make a list of pros and cons to be sure that I’ve considered everything and then discover that the length of each list reflects my subconscious preference. So, for me, this is a mixture of a head and also a heart decision.

I can work out any numbers but, like most accountants, I can usually make those numbers support my decision by tweaking the assumptions. This is why I don’t believe it’s worth spending too much time on projections because I can control the inputs to get the results I want. On paper at least. (It is still worth doing rough projections to ensure that you’re not way off target)

When it comes to business decisions I compare the possible outcomes with my initial business objectives to see which will get me closer to my goal. This has proved to be quite reliable in the past.

Another way is to spend 24 hours imagining that you’ve taken option A. This helps you to clarify the implications of that choice as well as to understand how you are likely to feel. Then spend 24 hours imagining that you’ve taken the alternative. This gives insight into which choice will make you happier.

How do you make decisions? Logically or following your gut instinct?

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Why Monday morning made me sad

I recently decided to make a concerted effort to stay on top of my emails. Not an Inbox Zero exercise where you just hide them in different folders (I tried it and out of sight is definitely out of mind for me) but actually dealing with them. As part of this exercise, I started measuring how many emails I have in my inbox when I log on in the morning and how many I have at the end of the day. Of course more emails come in throughout the day too but I don’t currently measure these.

It is quite alarming how many emails come in outside of conventional office hours!

Some of these are automated or from clients and colleagues in different time zones or people who, like me, choose to work odd hours but most are not.

And far too many people were working over the weekend so my inbox was jammed when I logged on on Monday morning.

If you’re one of these people and you’re working through necessity rather than choice then I really wish that we could talk. I’ve always run my businesses on an average of 25 hours per week and it breaks my heart to see people working long hours and missing out on family or personal time when I know I can help them.

We have all sorts of options from individual coaching to group coaching and online courses. If you’re really strapped for cash then I run free webinars and write books but frankly, most people don’t take action without a coach of some sort to motivate/nag them.

Have a look at hudsonbusiness.co.uk to see what we have available for accountants/bookkeepers and other business owners and make your business work for you in 2023.

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I am strong but I am tired

It happens to most of us at some point. November seems to be a busy month for me these days and I’m getting used to it. In the same way that December was busy when I ran a bigger accountancy practice alongside having to do all the family and school Christmas stuff. Many accountants extend this busy period into January too.

There may be other busy periods in your life due to business or home peaks. If you know they will only last for a short period then it is okay to power on through. (It is NOT okay if busyness is the norm!)

It is okay to feel tired. It is not a weakness. So here are a few tips to get through busy periods. Not all of them will be possible but hopefully one or two will help you.

1. Plan ahead and clear the decks as much as possible beforehand
2. Update your systems and processes in the quiet periods to make your busy period as easy as possible. This is why we run two strategic planning days in the new year. January for business owners and February for accountants (Check out our website or reply to this email for more info)
3. Learn to say “no”. If it doesn’t have to be done in your busy period then say “no” or “later”.
4. Balance your whole load. If you are having a busy period at work then be gentle with yourself at home. Your family can survive on oven meals for a short period and they may even see it as a bit of a treat. Your housework will also wait for you or get your kids to help out (it’s probably better than nothing and will train them for later life)
5. Ask for help. This may be from family, friends or employing extra help.
6. Buy extra time. I have two wonderful cleaners who work wonders on my home once a week so that I am free to get on with my work or to do something for me.
7. Try to take some rest and time for yourself. Even in your busy periods try to take at least one day off for you each week. And remember that working late will leave you too tired to work productively the next day so better to finish a bit earlier and get a good night’s sleep.
8. Remember to eat, sleep, hydrate and exercise to keep yourself as strong as possible.
9. Find a way to relax quickly. What are the quick, simple pleasures in your life? I like a bubble bath or a walk by the sea or a massage (anyone else get tense shoulders hunching over their desk?). None of these need to take much longer than 30-60 mins but they make a world of difference.

Please feel free to send me any other tips for this list.
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How to train your clients

I see lots of people complaining or rolling their eyes at the behaviour of certain ‘vampire’ clients that suck far more time and resources than the average client. But what can you do?

  1. Don’t take them on in the first place. Learn to recognise them and say no right from the outset. Unless you’re a lawyer or a licensed taxi driver then you are not obliged to take on every single client who comes to you (and even these have ways of turning down work)
  2. Onboard well with a clear scope of work. Make sure that your onboarding process includes managing your clients’ expectations. Ensure that everything is set up well from the start and that clients know your working hours and who deals with what. For instance, we have a ‘reasonable use’ clause on our telephone support. If we can’t answer something straight away on the phone because it is complex or requires detailed calculations then this is an additional charge.
  3. Service level agreements. Be clear on your turnaround times for answering questions or delivering your finished project/product/services. We aim to respond to queries by next working day and ask clients to reply within 1 week. We prepare year end accounts within 8 weeks and ask clients to send information within 8 weeks of the year end.
  4. Automate reminders in your systems so that you don’t hold up starting work through lack of information.
  5. Charging more is an option but sometimes this just encourages clients to feel entitled to more of your time or to send things closer to deadlines.
  6. If all else fails ditch the client. There are plenty of good clients out there waiting to work with us.

Remember that it is your business and you get to choose who you work with.

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Can I ‘just’ pick your brain?

How often do you get asked this? People you barely know, if at all, wanting to take some of your valuable time and expertise in exchange for a coffee or less.

There are some people whom I’m happy to say “yes” to due to close relationships or help that they’ve given to me or others in the past. There are some people who only ever take and, for these, it’s a straight “no”. But, for most people, I’d love to help but I don’t have the time in between earning a living and my own community commitments.

So how can you help people without giving up too much of your precious earning time or offering discounts on your core products and services?

I do this through writing books, running courses and group coaching sessions which are all cheaper than my individual coaching. But even this is too expensive for some so I write these Tips and provide free webinars. We run 6 Better Business webinars per year for accountants and bookkeepers and 12 Minerva Money Matter webinars per year for other business owners.

As a member of ICAEW or a local accountant or business woman I’m often asked to speak in schools and for other local groups. Lots of people helped me when I started out so I’m happy to do this. For those in even greater need we give a percentage of our turnover to charity each year.

How can you give back to others? How can you have the greatest impact on most people through one to many support? Or would you prefer to sponsor an individual? Perhaps you already do something like this? Let me know how you prefer to support your local community or preferred charity.

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