Tag: business owner

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Government help to improve your cashflow 

Yes, the government are on the side of the small business with the legal right to claim interest and debt collection charges on late payment. And there is more legislation on the way. 

So why isn’t it working? 

Because small businesses are too scared of losing clients to USE the legislation.  

But a customer who doesn’t pay is NOT a customer. Somebody takes goods from a small business without paying is a thief. So what do we call people who take services without paying? Customers! 

Use the law to help collect your own debts but also to help change how small businesses are treated. Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 calculator are here.

And a big thank you to Emma Jones OBE, now Small Business Commissioner, who kindly wrote the foreword to my second book ‘Growing by Numbers: how to scale up your business with confidence’

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Spotting vampire clients early 

Not every prospect should become a client. 

Some clients expect to pay a compliance fee to receive an advisory service. It’s not their fault. If a prospect starts the conversation with “How cheap can you do it?” they’re either a start up with no idea of value, or they need re-educating. Too many accountants pitch entirely on price so we need to overcome this focus and educate business owners that in accountancy, as elsewhere, they often get what they pay for. The same goes for many other service businesses where the owner is selling their professional expertise or a skilled service 

Sometimes they criticise every previous adviser but it’s easy to see the common factor. If they ignore deadlines and processes or hide information during the onboarding process you can be sure that they won’t improve once they’re a client. 

If they want urgent work immediately, especially if caused by their own delays, this is another red flag. 

Vampire clients suck the time, profit, energy, and joy out of your business.  

Trust your instincts. Stick to your boundaries. Say “no”. 

The latest UK Business Confidence Monitor from ICAEW 

https://www.icaew.com/technical/economy/business-confidence-monitor/business-confidence-monitor-national
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I wish my accountant was more proactive 

I’ve lost track of the number of accountants who describe themselves as “proactive” on their websites.

According to Cambridge English Dictionary:
Proactive = taking action by causing change and not only reacting to change when it happens

For an accountant to ‘cause change’ they would need to be actively advising a business on how to change their numbers. This is a very different offering from completing tax returns once a year. It’s not even the same as completing management accounts once a month.

In order to ‘cause change’ you need a starting point:
Up to date bookkeeping, management accountants, KPIs, etc

You also need to understand those numbers:
Analysis, commentary, a management review

Then the real work can begin. The expertise of knowing how to change those numbers. And the action plan and accountability to ensure that it happens.

Most accountants don’t deliver on their proactive promise because their clients do not pay enough for this premium service, or because the basic numbers aren’t available in time to take action. With technology to speed up processes this is easily changed so that more business owners can benefit from truly proactive accountants.

If you would like to find out more then you can book a Clarity review with us to drive your business forwards, get in touch to find out more.

We want accountants to make a real difference to business owners, so let’s do better business together.

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How I won my first clients and what I’d do differently today

Looking back on when I first set up my first business I didn’t have a clue about marketing.  

I’d read all the books (okay, maybe not ALL of them) and even taken a few courses but reality is very different when you start day one of your business. Running a business is a real roller coaster of fear and exhilaration and nobody is there to guide you. 

I found my first clients for Hudson Accountants (my second business) by hand delivering a mailshot to local businesses on the High Street and a local trading estate. They were individually addressed as I’d walked down the road making a note of the business names. I’d even included a reply paid card. When I received the first (and only) one of those reply paid cards we celebrated with a glass of bubbly. 

Networking was another terrifying experience. These days it comes much more smoothly as I enter a room where people often know me from social media or other connections and I even bump into clients at some events. But my first Chamber of Commerce lunch in Manchester in 2009 I didn’t have a clue what to say!  

As you can see, I’ve survived, moved the business from Bolton to Bristol and then sold it. I now run three other fully remote businesses including Minerva Accountants. 

For business owners looking to avoid the same learning curve, the 30 Day Start Up course provides practical guidance on the key skills needed to build a successful business, while Minerva Accountants helps entrepreneurs stay on top of the financial side as they grow.

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The 7 Biggest Mistakes Business Owners Make 

Most of the mistakes come down to a lack of confidence and uncertainty.

1. Undercharging – you don’t know how much to charge and aren’t confident of your value 

2. Taking any client with a pulse – you’re desperate to build that million pound business and you don’t know what a good client looks like and who is ideal for you 

3. Selling everything – whatever your clients or prospects ask for, you try to sell it. But which work or products are profitable and which should you say “no” to? 

4. AI paralysis – you can’t tell what is hype and what is helpful so you do nothing 

5. Avoiding marketing – ‘build it and they will come’ doesn’t work unless you tell people about it. You may even need to tell them before you’ve finished building it. 

6. Trying to do everything themselves – you may be trying to bootstrap but some things are worth investing in. 

7. Waiting until everything is perfect – paralysis by perfectionism. Bryony Thomas says it best when she suggests that you start when things are ‘functional but not embarrassing’. I’ve founded 5 businesses to date and even sold one of them for 32% above average and none of them are perfect but they’re profitable.

The good news? Most of these mistakes are avoidable. Building a business is a skill in itself, and it’s not something many of us are taught.

That’s why the 30 Day Start Up course was created: to give business owners practical guidance on the key areas that matter most, from marketing and pricing to finance and strategy.Prefer to learn live? A live Start Up workshop will be taking place later this year. I’d love to see you there, so reply if you’d be interested. 

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Why competence isn’t enough to run a great business 

Whether you’re a lawyer, a plumber, or a graphic designer technical competence and business success are not the same thing.

There are three main strands to a business: operations, finance and sales.

As you grow your business you will be able to recruit people with specialist expertise but, from day one, it needs to be you.

Hopefully you’ve already spent years honing your craft and maybe even observing how your boss runs the business side. But there’s a lot to running a business and you’ve probably never had to handle sales and marketing before.

Being good at your job isn’t enough to build a thriving business.

Starting a successful business requires:

> Marketing

> Sales

> Pricing

> Systems

> Client and deadline management

Not to mention confidence and self-motivation on the bad days.

None of this is taught at school. I’ve founded 5 businesses to date and successfully exited two of them (I still run three businesses but that’s another story)

I’ve been a guest lecturer on the UWE Entrepreneur degree course but, generally, this bit of the training that has been missed up until now.

Of course, it can all be learned from books but that takes time to figure out what will work for you. Fortunately, we run a StartUp Bootcamp for business owners where we have 30 videos taking you through the key skills that you need to run a business. You can sign up for this online​ or let me know if you would like to join our live workshop later this year.

At Minerva Accountants we also work with entrepreneurs to take care of the finance part of your operations along with our courses Finance for Directors and Directors’ Responsibilities to help you to stay on top of your growing business.

I look forward to seeing you there and being part of your success. Let’s do better business.

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Borrowed years 

Most business owners set up with a purpose, with an end in mind. Whether that is a £million business or a particular income or just a decent work-life balance. They start off full of energy and enthusiasm and many achieve a degree of success. 

And then they hit a glass ceiling! 

They’re working too many hours for not enough profit and borrowing time from the future as their original goal remains just out of sight.  

It’s not uncommon to work silly hours when setting up a business but, if you’re three years into your business and you’re still working those silly hours, or your growth plans have gone out of the window (assuming you had a business plan to start?) then something needs to change. 

Burnout is real. It may be time for a chat. 

As an accountant AND a business coach AND an award winning business author AND the founder of five businesses with two successful exits to date I have the skills to review your business analytically, to help you to get back on track, and to measure that progress.  

Further down the line you may have a board to share the burden with you and to bring in expertise but, for now, that’s not affordable (if that was ever part of your vision). So we have lots of ways to help business owners (and accountants and bookkeepers who run businesses too). From strategic planning days, to monthly or quarterly Clarity reviews, from online courses and workshops (because you’re not the only one who needs to know this), to coaching and mentoring sessions we can provide business advice and accountability to get you to your end goal faster. 

Stop borrowing time from future years and take some action to get back on track.  

Let’s do better business.  

Together.

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When was the last time you worked on your business?

We have a July year end, a legacy from when my children were small and my life revolved around the school year. 

August is my quiet planning time and, with three businesses, there’s a lot to think about. 

It is important to take time out of your business and we run strategic planning days for businesses and accountants for just this purpose. It’s now time to take some of my own medicine. 

When do you take time to plan? 

(Our next group strategy days are in Sep, Dec, Jan, Feb, and Mar or we can run a bespoke day for your business) 

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Xerocon benefits 

I’ve just spent this week at Xerocon London. So what was the benefit of 3 days out of my business? 

  • listened to all sorts of interesting talks from the best accountants that will help me to improve my business 
  • getting beyond the AI hype to some practical ideas for embedding more AI into Minerva Accountants 
  • hearing about the Xero roadmap and all sorts of new features to help accountants and business owners 
  • chatting to other software companies about how they can help Minerva Accountants and our clients 
  • chatting to other forward thinking accountants from around the world about the issues that we face in our businesses, what works, and what doesn’t 
  • being invited to speak about accountant/entrepreneur/high performer 4am waking and what we can do to help ourselves 
  • breakfast with the Small Business Commissioner (Emma Jones who wrote the foreword to my second book) to discuss the problem with late payments and new legislation that is making its way through parliament 
  • generally relaxing knowing that my business was in safe hands with my fabulous team 

I now have a head buzzing with ideas on how to improve Minerva Accountants so that we can offer better advice and more efficient services to our clients. 

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The power of niche positioning and how specialising can help you to win more clients 

Have you ever tried to hit some of those moving targets in tan online shooting game?  

How much time do you spend wavering between targets? And how many potential targets do you miss as a result? On the other hand, if you are clear about your target and track it for a while, you have more chance of hitting it. 

Vague, generalist messaging doesn’t resonate and it is hard for prospect to see the relevance of it to them. 

Having a strong niche means that you can share messages and advice that are relevant to your audience and feel as though they were written just for the person reading them. This brings in higher quality leads and leads to faster trust as they feel that you truly understand them 

1.Choose your niche which may be clients you enjoy working with and where you are able to deliver the most value (providing that they have sufficient profit to pay you, of course) 

2.Update your website messaging 

3.Update your social media profiles and refresh your content 

4.Share case studies relevant to your niche 

5.Share advice for their specific problems 

Be known for something and your message will be much clearer for the right clients.