Tag: businessgrowth

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Building a business that works for you 

When I take on a new client, whether for Minerva Accountants or for coaching, I always start with WHY they started their own business. They usually fall into one of three categories: 

  • Freedom 
  • Flexibility 
  • Control 

A few want to make a difference to the world. Only once have I taken on a client whose primary motivation was financial. But somewhere along the line they have lost this in the business of making a living. They might be growing, but they’re growing in the wrong direction. 

After founding five businesses and successfully exited two, as well as coaching numerous business leaders, I’ve found that the measures of success are different for everyone. For some it is time with their family, for others it is the freedom to travel, and there are some who just want a few luxuries without killing themselves working long hours. 

There’s no single blueprint but there are definitely principles that work across all sorts of businesses.  

I’m fortunate to have a space to share this in my books and from stages around the world but I particularly enjoy coaching owners and nurturing individual businesses where I can see the results of my advice and support. 

The best business isn’t always the biggest one, it’s the one that works for you.  

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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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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. 

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Minerva Momentum Review 

To keep your business moving forwards (without the faff). 

The Minerva Momentum Review is a sharp, monthly business check‑in for owners who want progress, not another report they’ll never read. 

In 30 minutes we boil your business down to one page: 

  • 3 key numbers that actually matter 
  • What’s going well, what needs attention, and what’s quietly shouting for help 
  • Clear actions, with names next to them (because things only get done when someone owns them) 

No jargon. No waffle. No 40‑page management accounts destined for a drawer. 

This review keeps you focused, accountable, and looking forwards, not just backwards at last month’s numbers. It’s structured enough to be useful, relaxed enough to be human, and designed to keep momentum going month after month. 

Think of it as a regular business MOT; quick, practical, and far cheaper than fixing things once they’ve broken. 

One page. Three KPIs. Clear actions. Real movement. 

Contact to book yours.

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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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Understanding the gap between profit and cash

Lack of cashflow is the number one cause of failure in small businesses. Even profitable businesses still run out of cash. This can because they’re not forecasting their cashflow requirements properly as they grow (See our webinar on How to Scale Without Cashflow Chaos https://youtu.be/hmPssYUINWY?si=8nRJW-KGaAQfZRQy ) 

But sometimes businesses are busy tracking the wrong thing. Your profit and loss is only one of the reports that you should be looking at regularly. This doe not show: 

  • Timing differences between invoicing and payments 
  • VAT and corporation tax due to HMRC are big lump sums that still seem to surprise some business owners 
  • You might also have cash tied up in stock, work in progress and other uninvoiced work, and prepaid costs 
  • Directors, loan accounts often accumulate an overdrawn balance when director/shareholders help themselves to cash and call it ‘dividends’ without carrying out the necessary solvency checks beforehand. 

Ideally you should have a proper cashflow forecast and there is software that will connect to Xero (and other software) to help you to do this for yourself, or with our help.