Category: Business

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The THREE numbers to transform your business 

It’s too easy to have KPI overload. Even accountants can lose focus with too many numbers so it helps to have just THREE numbers to monitor that will help to transform your business. Having just 3 key numbers helps to create clarity rather than getting lost in the fog of too much data. KPIs shouldn’t just be passive but should show the results of your ACTIONs. 

So which ones should you choose? Well, it depends on your business goals so your three KPIs will probably be different to mine. Are you aiming for growth, profitability, cash stability, efficiency, work-life balance or something else? Proactive accountants can focus on the three numbers for each of their business clients in order to offer the most appropriate advice. 

Start by thinking what a good year would look like for you. 

You can then identify one KPI in each of the following areas:

1.Profitability

e.g. gross or net profit.

This helps you to develop a sustainable business and should be a consideration in all pricing conversations. As our overheads are fairly fixed I focus on monthly turnover.  

2.Cashflow

e.g. cash runway, debtor days.

Cash keeps you in business and gives you the stability and confidence to invest in whatever you need to achieve your efficiency or growth targets. Most of our clients are on monthly fixed fees and direct debits but I focus on any late payers amongst our smaller annual clients and ad hoc consultancy work.

3.Performance/growth

e.g. revenue per full time equivalent employee, average client value, utilisation rate. 

This is an essential part of efficiency and scalability. I track my total working hours so that I don’t get sucked into the long bours trap. When my kids were small and my working week was capped at 25 hours (the length of a school week) I focused on my profit per hour. My favourite KPI was with a coaching client who tracked her golf handicap to ensure that her work-life balance allowed her enough time on the golf course and not slaving over her desk.

KPIS should be simple to understand and measure and directly related to the management action.

KPIS are not set and forget. They should be reviewed weekly, monthly, or even daily. And you may change your KPIs as you grow stronger in one area and need to shift focus a little as your business evolves.

Clarity beats complexity and using just three KPIs keeps things clear and simple.

If you want somebody to help you set and track your three numbers for a successful business then please get in touch:

Business Advice & Part‑Time FD Services
Coaching and Mentoring

https://calendly.com/hudsonbusiness/minerva-clarity-review-business-advice-350-vat

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Why every small business needs business advice 

Times are tough at the moment and small business owners don’t know where to turn. Those who are fortunate to have an accountant who already provides business advice have a headstart on their competitors. The real value of a good accountant goes far beyond ticking boxes, filling in forms, and meeting deadlines. This is the basic service that we offer our ‘Essentials’ clients in return for a ‘no frills’ fee.

Business is advice is more than just tax advice! Business advice is about improving profitability, growth, and work-life balance. More and more of our clients are asking us for additional advice sessions throughout the year.

It’s not just about preparing management accounts that nobody bothers to look at but about sharing ways that will improve the business. An accountant can explain what the numbers mean, highlight trends, and identify issues early. I’m not just an accountant and an entrepreneur myself but am also a qualified Coach and Mentor so at Minerva Accountants, we are able to provide so much more than just financial advice.

Business advisers can play a vital role in strategic planning and decisions such as pricing, hiring staff, investing in equipment, raising finance, expanding into new markets or just growing your share of your current market. And they have an open book of contacts when it’s time to call in experts.

Why wouldn’t any small business take advantage of business advice from their accountant when times are tough? And why aren’t more accountants able to offer this advice?

In short, business advice from accountants is not a luxury for small businesses, it’s a strategic asset. By working with an accountant who focuses on understanding the bigger picture, small business owners gain clarity, control and confidence. Compliance keeps a business legal, but advice helps it to grow, even through tough times.

If you’re looking for support in this area, we have a few options for you:

👉 Business Advice & Part-time FD Services 

👉 Coaching and Mentoring for Business Owners 

👉 Minerva Clarity Review and Business Advice

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The joy of referrals and how to receive more

I’m sure that I’m not alone in enjoying winning new business. But referrals are my favourite source of new clients.

  1. It means that your current client is happy with the work that you’re doing
  2. It means that the prospect is probably like the client so we can expect them to be a good fit for our organisation and we are more likely to take them on.
  3. It means that the prospect has already received a glowing testimonial which derisks things for them so they are more likely to want to join us.

So how can we receive more?

  1. Look after your existing clients well so that they don’t just stay with you but they also feel confident to introduce others
  2. Have a system to ask for referrals. This might be an email signature that something like ‘our business grows by referral so we’d love to meet more people like you’ or sending a specific email ‘business is good but we’re looking for more’

Here’s to many more happy clients

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The 3 Stages of Scaling an Accountancy or Service Business

Stage 1: Owneroperator. On starting up it’s just you and you may choose to bootstrap and spend your time instead of your cash so that you end up working long days. Everything is new and it takes a while to refine your systems so that you’re con constantly reinventing the wheel. You need to pay for expertise that you don’t already have or undergo training. And what happens if you go off sick or want to take a holiday?

Stage 2: Small team with bottlenecks. Now you have people in board to take care of most of the day to day stuff but anything new still involves you in making a decision, buying software, or recruiting. As a chartered accountant I review ALL the accounts that I sign off. Now the fear isn’t your own absence but recruiting and retaining the right people. Your team get paid first and you get what’s left over. If there is anything left over.

Stage 3: Managerled business. Now the day to day has moved away from you and so have many of the decisions and processes. You are removed from the business and managing remotely by the numbers. You dream (or have nightmares) about your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)

There are different financial challenges at each stage and, as accountants, we are used to helping are clients at all stages. But finance isn’t the only challenge and our coaching sessions help clients to move smoothly, or as smoothly as possible, from one stage to the next. This is that value of an accountant who is also a business coach.

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Companies House carnage 

What a week it’s been with confidentiality issues at Companies House following on from weeks of confirmation statement failures back in November and problems with accepting personal ID numbers for directors.

We try to stay on top of all these deadlines with reminders to clients on top of all those from Companies House themselves but it’s not easy and, whilst we haven’t let down any clients yet, I have encountered problems with my own companies. Yes, as an entrepreneur as well as an accountant I run two other businesses alongside Minerva Accountants.

Having requested that all directors verified their personal ID by 18 November last year we’re still chasing in some clients in order to submit their confirmation statements. Even where we don’t submit confirmation statements we will soon need these in order to submit accounts.

The latest round of personal ID verifications is for PSCs (Person with Significant Control) but, for some unknown reason, it was not possible to add these to the confirmation statements that we have already submitted. Instead there is a 2 week window for each company at some seemingly random time of year.

And this is what has caught me out.

On 10 March I received an email reminder to ID myself as a PSC on one of my companies. Great, I’m all ready to enter my number BUT my window isn’t until April so it’s going to sit in my inbox until then. I’m pretty sure that half our clients will lose this email when their window comes. Good thing they’ve got Minerva Accountants looking after them!

Yesterday I received a letter for another of my companies forwarded from my old home address saying that I had missed the window to ID myself as a PSC. No idea what happened to the original letter/email and why they sent it to that address when I carefully updated everything at Companies House at the time and have even submitted a confirmation statement. The letter was fierce but toothless and just gave me an extension so no real problem but something clearly isn’t working.

Basically, if the system isn’t easy for somebody like me who is used to compliance, then small business owners don’t have a hope!

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How to prepare for a stress-free year end

The best time to prepare for a stress-free year end is nearly a year ago. Trite but true.  

But we are where we are so what can you do now? 

  • Make sure that all invoicing is up to date 
  • Make sure that you collect as much cash as possible from your clients. (See other articles on improving your cashflow and credit control procedures).  
  • Write off old, uncollectable debts to understand the true financial position 
  • Upload all purchase bills (next year you can start to add Hubdoc, Apron, or Dext so that you can do this as you go!) 
  • Chase the team for expenses 
  • Check for any draft sales invoices or purchase bills and either process them fully or delete them if necessary. 
  • Check for old, unpaid bills. Are these genuinely waiting to be paid or the result of a duplicate entry? (This often happens if the bank account is reconciled before uploading bills 
  • Reconcile the bank account (we hope you do this regularly anyway!) and chase VAT receipts for all payments 
  • Run a P&L by month and look for missing expenses each month such as 11 rent or software payments instead of 12. (Xenon Connect or Dext Precision software is great for this) 
  • Reconcile payroll to the accounts. Salaries should agree to payroll summary reports and balances owed to HMRC should agree to the business tax account 
  • Reconcile the final VAT return to the accounts and the business tax account. This is easiest if the VAT period is aligned with the year end. You can change your VAT period online in the business tax account. 
  • Review the Directors’ loan accounts (DLA) to make sure that they’re not overdrawn (and remind directors, yet again, not to keep helping themselves to company cash without declaring proper dividends!) 

Doing this early, and regularly, will help to make the year end easier. 

While you’re at it why not consider regular management accounts to provide a true financial position BEFORE directors draw money out of the business? It would save the company so much money on overdrawn DLAs leading to S455 penalty tax and tax/NI on P11D beneficial loans. 

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The three levers that instantly improve productivity 

There are so many ways to grow your business that it can feel like a nightmare knowing what to do first so here are the three most effective levers to pull to instantly improve your profitability. 

1.Pricing 

Most businesses are under-priced and it just becomes a race to the bottom as there is ALWAYS somebody who will do it cheaper. Many accountancy firms are as much as 20-40% under-priced. 

This mini-course explains how to go about it and why you shouldn’t worry too much about losing your less profitable clients.

2.Productivity 

Getting things right first time reduces rework, structuring your time to minimise interruptions, and minimising or eliminating other inefficiencies will improve your productivity,  

3.Positioning 

Establish yourself as an expert or quality service and you will attract clients who value that expertise. This is a case of BEING better and also SHOWING yourself off better.  

Small tweaks can be more effective when time and other resources are limited.  

And, as usual, we have a resource that can help you so just email us if you would like a copy of our 30 day Profitability Boost Checklist (free) or to subscribe to our 30 day online course and group to ensure that you actually get it done (£199). hello@minervaaccountants.co.uk

Scale up 4 Growth grants are back!

For businesses with 5-249 employees and where activity and outcomes are delivered within a 50 mile range of UWE Bristol. Find out more here​. 

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The hidden costs of being too helpful to clients 

Here at Minerva Accountants we are fortunate to have the best clients. This is a deliberate strategy on my part as I feel that we do our best work for people we like. I often put down the phone after a call and think ‘that’s my favourite client!’ 

The downside of dealing with such wonderful business owners is that we have to remind ourselves not to be too helpful. 

  • Over-servicing and scope creep – while we include telephone support in most of our packages it’s easy to do too much. Much as I love my work I’m running a business and not a charity so it’s important to charge for extras. If it’s not a quick answer and requires either calculations or research then we book a paid call. 
  • Constantly saying ‘yes’ can have an emotional cost when it becomes hard to set boundaries when you need to say ‘no’ 
  • Giving away too much begins to erode profitability so you need to work extra hours or take on more clients. More clients means not enough time to service the ones that you already have so it’s a lose-lose. 
  • Setting expectations early is important. As in any good improv class the answer is ‘yes, and … ‘ In our case it is ‘yes, and … that will cost £x or £x per hour’ 
  • Clear boundaries improve client relationships. I’ve lost count of the number of times on online forums when accountants close to burnout are complaining about clients who expect them to answer the phone in the evenings or over the weekend. The simple answer is to turn off the phone (or send calls to voice mail) outside of office hours.  

I hope you are setting the right boundaries in your business for your profitability and your health. Good clients won’t push these boundaries. 

If you think you’re over-servicing then contact us for our Over-Servicing Assessment and reclaim your profitability  

Scale up 4 Growth grants are back! 

For businesses with 5-249 employees and where activity and outcomes are delivered within a 50 mile range of UWE Bristol 

https://www.uwe.ac.uk/business/businesses-and-employers/scale-up-4-growth

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Why most businesses plateau and how to break through 

1.There is a limit to how much one person can handle, both in terms of practical work and mental load. Even if you are prepared to work an 80 hour week! If you want a decent work-life balance then you need to systemise, automate, and delegate in order to grow beyond your personal limits. 

2.More clients doesn’t always equal more profit. The most profitable clients are often those that are the best for for your business. These fit your systems so you can work more efficiently AND they fit your expertise so you can provide better value. 

3.Every business has bottle necks. These might be in the workflow itself or it may be that you and your limited time are the bottleneck. 

4.You need to make the mindset move away from technician to business owner. Stop trying to do everything yourself. This will increase your profitability, scalability and saleability 

If you’d like a copy of our Small Firm Growth Breakthrough Blueprint please email hello@minervaaccountants.co.uk

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A double workload ahead? 

I’ve been speaking on the topic of MTD for 10 years now. Initially to our own clients, then to other accountants and bookkeepers, and now to business owners. One of the reasons I’ve been trying to encourage people to pull their finger out is because there will be a period of double work. 

In case you haven’t already realised, and it seems that many haven’t, you will have to submit a normal tax return for 2025/26 AND three quarterly returns for 2026/27 during the 10 month period April 2026 – Jan 2027. 

Do, if you aren’t ready for MTD yet … pull your finger out! (And give me a shout if you need a hand)