Accountancy Age has published a profile piece on Peter Hargreaves (Chartered Accountant and founder of Hargreaves Lansdown).  In it he is quite scathing about certain elements of the profession. None more so than the smaller practitioner:

“They’re not doing a good enough job for clients, hence they can’t charge much for the work. A self-defeating spiral, where pressure on fees is rife from client and competitors.‘The problem is they can’t command the fees to do the job properly. The profession has failed singularly to create the right aura for the charging of fees. They’re different to lawyers, who tend to make good businessmen.”

“The problem is the mindset of accountants. They tend to be ‘mean’ with money, which makes them fear charging. ‘Because there are a few doing it for nearly nothing, the others feel they have to compete, but they’ll give you a bad service. A false economy.”

“Those who want accountants don’t know who’s good, and they try and pay very little.”

“Adding value is the key for practices, instead of just preparing accounts from a ‘bunch of invoices’, because ‘if that’s the service they’re offering they don’t service much for it – and if that’s what the client wants they don’t deserve a good accountant”.

“They should say to clients “we want to be in your offices every three months finding out what’s going on, where you make money, to help financially plan your business. If you make a big profit, should you do something before then, perhaps a marketing promotion and spend it this year while we’re profitable” etc. but of course lots of business don’t even know if they’ve made a profit until the accountants produce the accounts.”

Do you find that insulting or does any of what Peter says strike a chord? It’s pretty much the same sort of message as is offered (a little more gently perhaps) by organisations such as AVN, the 2020 group and Probiz. Please tell me what you think by way of comments on this blog.

I was asked for these when contributing to a business survey recently.

1 – Set up rules in your email management system to reduce the time absorbed by incoming emails. 2 – Book time in your diary for regular activities such as bookkeeping, invoicing, personal development, replying to emails etc. If client work has to be done in a slot reserved for key activities, move them to another date – in the same week. 3 – Set up a simple strategic plan with month by month activities to ensure you focus on working ON building your business beyond simply working IN the business. Then monitor and work that plan. (And reserve time in your diary to do this each month)

What else do you find works for you?

Having been asked to contribute some tips to a careers magazine I thought I’d replicate them on this blog too.

I have always remembered the first time that someone I was interviewing asked if they could make notes. Of course my reply was ‘yes’.  Indeed I was impressed that they were evidently prepared, had asked my permission and noted down only key facts. Their notebook also contained prompts for questions they asked of me later in the interview.  This took place 20 years ago. I still remember it because it was the first time. But looking back I don’t recall many other candidates for jobs doing the same thing and when I was in practice I must have interviewed dozens and dozens of people.

So that’s my top tip. Remember that an interview is quite distinct from sitting an exam. I explained this to a young family friend recently before she attended her first ever job interview. I explained that she wasn’t “cheating” if she needed to check her notes before asking a question. I also stressed that it can look very professional to make notes during an interview as long as you don’t lose too much eye contact. So only try to note down key points. You can always supplement the notes later.

Tip number two is something that I would do if I were ever again an interviewee. I would look up the interviewer on the web. I’d check the firm’s website, I’d look them up on Google and on LinkedIn. I’m assuming that you will have already checked out the firm or company online before applying for the job or when the interview is arranged. But these days you can go a step further and look up the interviewer too.

I always try to check people out online before I attend pre-planned meetings. I note down a couple of salient facts and may use these or refer directly to the online profile during the meeting.  This can help you prepare for the meeting as you may find a photo of the person, you’ll remove a little of the uncertainty and you’ll often pick up a couple of things that will help you in building rapport with your interviewer.  But you do have to be careful when you do this. Not everyone I meet is net savvy (and the same will be true of some interviewers). It’s all too easy to freak someone out by revealing how much information you have found out about them online. And that’s something to avoid doing during an interview (and indeed at any time). So be careful!

Twitter seems a bizarre concept. In theory you post brief messages (up to 140 characters at a time) about what you’re doing and these are seen by your ‘followers’. Equally you can read what other people who you’re following say they’re doing.

In practice ‘tweets’ are far more varied than some of the media would have you believe.

Through twitter I have secured attendees at my seminars, traffic to my websites and to my blogs. I have also benefitted from having my messages ReTweeted to wider audiences than the people who ‘follow’ me. And following links from other people’s tweets has led to useful material for my blogs. I’ve also started to build online relationships and have experienced strangers acting as my advocate.

Each time I add new posts to my Ambitious Accountants blog, my TaxBuzz blog or my Accountant jokes blogs an automatic Tweet goes out with a link back to the new blog post. And it’s not only my ‘followers’ who get to see them. Many people search twitter for real time commentary and then tell others.

So, for me twitter is shaping up as a fun business tool. But, do I think many UK accountants will become active on twitter? No. It’s too time consuming as compared with other ways in which they can achieve their business objectives. In this connection I refer back to a blog post I wrote last December in which I explained why ‘Twitter is not for accountants’. My views are unchanged despite knowing a handful of accountants who are now active on twitter – some are even enthusiastic about it. Maybe more will try it out, but I doubt many will stay the course (for business).

Twitter is the latest phenomenon in the area of ‘online business networking’. Business or social? It depends how you choose to use twitter, what you tweet about and who you follow. If you follow all the internet marketing enthusiasts, the celebrity twitterers and the novices who don’t really ‘get it’ you’ll certainly consider twitter a waste of time.

You may know some of your ‘followers’ personally. Others will find you through friends, through real time searches re accountancy and tax subjects or subjects o mutual interest. There are loads of would be twitter spammers – but if you don’t follow them they can’t spam you! And you choose who you follow. If you don’t like the way that someone tweets, ‘unfollow’ them.

I doubt many of my followers read all of my tweets. I certainly don’t have time to read all those of all the people I follow. Many of them in fact only tweet occasionally. As well as friends and business associates I follow other commentators, some journalists, some firms, some publications and some organisations. Many are still experimenting with their twitter strategy – as am I.

—–

If you decide to join in, by all means follow me at www.twitter.com/BookMarkLee. I’ve explained my approach in more details on the twitter page of this blog.

Through the Tax Advice Network I also write the The Tax Buzz blog and twitter feed which you can follow at www.twitter.com/TheTaxBuzz

And if you have a contrary view, whether you are an accountant or not, please add your comments to this post.

Two of the advantages of operating through the medium of a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) are that no personal liability falls on a member of a limited liability partnership for the contracts or debts of the LLP and there is no joint or several liability for the negligence of any other member.

It seems reasonable therefore to discuss this option during my talks about ‘How to avoid professional negligence claims and worse’.

It is worth noting that the key advantage of an LLP as compared with a traditional partnership is that the members of the LLP have the protection of limited liability if something goes wrong with the business, in much the same way as do shareholders in a limited company. For many liabilities (eg bank finance and rental obligations) personal guarantees may be required but this rarely occurs as regards the prospect of claims being made re negligent advice.

In practice a member of an accountancy LLP is in no better and no worse position than a director of a limited company of accountants. But they are in a better position than the partners in a conventional partnership.

However, the protection of limited liability is not the main reason for firms choosing to convert to LLP status. It is more the fact that an increasing number of younger ambitious prospective partners are reluctant to take partnership in conventional firms where they are taking on joint and several liability with the older partners. Given the choice between partnership in such a firm or in an LLP, all else being equal they choose the LLP.

Does this accord with your oewn experience? Please add your veiws as comments on this post.

In this recent video interview Dennis Howlett asked me about my use of Twitter and my views on accountants’ networking strategy. It lasts around 4 minutes.

I’d appreciate feedback – whether you agree or disagree with my views.

When I first saw the headline ‘Death by Accountancy‘ I assumed this would be an item for my blog containing accountant jokes and fun. But I’m afraid it’s a further lesson that Accountancy is about more than just numbers.

Yesterday I revisited a related subject that I haven’t written about on this blog for some time. That is the importance of soft skills. I’ve previously noted that Strong technical skills are not enough, and identified the options available When you need more than just technical skills.

The article headed ‘Death by Accountancy‘ isn’t so much about accountants’ own soft skills but about why accountants shouldn’t ignore such matters when advising on restructuring plans.

The article looks at the recent failure of MFI and suggests that:

it wasn’t the recession that killed MFI. It’s death warrant was signed by its own executives in a restructure some five years earlier. Like thousands of other companies, it has been killed by the absurd pretence, cemented in MBA orthodoxy, that a company consists of little more than costs and resources, and that people and skills represent the ‘soft stuff’.

Continuing in a similar vein:

In truth, the company was destroyed by a cost-reduction programme that took no account of staff skills and customer service.

I wonder if the common experience of accountants in practice (whereby all the emphasis is typically on technical competency) has an impact on how they view businesses in the commercial sector? And if so, are there any lessons that can be learned?

What do you think?

Recently I was approached in the following terms:

“I have been authorised to sign up for up to three soft skills courses this year.  I know that you are an expert in these things and was wondering if you could suggest three you think most appropriate and the right order.”

Here’s an extract from my reply:

“Think of soft skills in the same way as technical skills. Which approach works best for you?

Are you still at the stage where you look at the list of available courses and then pick from the list or do you start by asking – where I am weakest? Or which areas do I most want to keep on top of? And having decided where to focus, you then look to find specific relevant technical courses on those subjects?

In my view the same approach is key to developing ‘soft skills’. I’d suggest that the best starting point is to identify which areas would most benefit from development. As a starting point I have attached a checklist of a dozen key skills.  Pick those that are most important to you in your role at [your firm]. Then rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 for those skills that are important. That should help you to identify where to focus. Once you’ve done that it’ll be easier to recommend some suitable courses or training.”

I also included a link to a white paper I wrote a couple of years ago about personal skills development for ambitious professionals. This contains the 12 key skills too, so you could use that list if you wanted to follow the approach I’ve sugested above.

Earlier this year I was approached by headhunters who were seeking the first head of Accountancy services for a new division within the Financial Services Skills Council (FSSC).

I was  curious about the role in question as it seemed to be almost tailor made for me. It seemed to require someone with precisely my skills, experience, background and interests.  However I quickly ruled myself out of the running due to my unavailability to take on a full time salaried position.  As regular readers of this blog will know I am committed to building the Tax Advice Network so am not therefore able to take a full time position anywhere.

I was also concerned that the role as specified was totally misconceived;  the headhunters were unable to disabuse me of this view.   And of course it would not have been in their interest to pass on my concerns to the FSSC.

I was reminded of this recently when I chanced upon reference to the FSSC’s large-scale programme of research on the skills needed and demand for training, labour and skills in the accountancy and finance sector.  Having looked through the survey that they are conducting let’s just say that it has confirmed the concerns I had earlier in the year.

I have also seen no reference to the survey in the professional press, the finance or business press or on relevant websites so I’m not sure how ‘large-scale’ it really is – or maybe it’s only just been launched.  Still, in an effort to assist I thought I would share the relevant links on this blog – given my focus on advising ambitious accountants and those who train them.

…. findings of this survey could help influence Government policy and public funding decisions in the areas of skills and training. This is your chance to help shape your industry’s [sic] agenda for skills.

If you are involved in recruiting, training, or managing accounting staff and other finance practitioners then your insights are valuable to us. In responding to this survey, we would like you to focus only on staff that you yourself have managed, supported, worked with or been responsible for in your current role.

This survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete and all responses will be treated in strict confidence. No data or comments will be attributed to individuals or businesses, or passed to any third parties.

FSSC Accountancy and Finance Skills Survey

In my view the implicit assumptions and lack of insights evident from many of the questions, the limited options available for replies and the absence of any facility to amplify or explain replies in the survey itself means that the results can only be of limited significance even from a statistical perspective. They will not be of any real value in determining appropriate change and developments in the accountancy or finance sector.

I would welcome contrary, or indeed supportive, views from any readers of this blog if you have time to look at the survey (and to complete it – if you consider it would be worthwhile to do so.  I’m afraid I don’t).