As an experienced commercial professional speaker, Mark is able to adapt his talks to fit the occasion and the organiser’s time slot. Mark always finishes on time!

You can book Mark to present his talks in-house for a single firm or for wider audiences of accountants, tax advisers or other professionals. Each talk can be presented as a half day course, a shorter session perhaps as part of a conference or as a 45-60 minute keynote.

Over the years Mark has been commended for his keynote speeches at conferences for professional bodies, associations, banks and professional firms.

Mark’s current talks are listed below with further details beneath. As he left private practice in 2006 he no longer offers tax focused updates.

If you have something specific in mind it’s always worth getting in touch as Mark’s repertoire is always developing. For example in 2009 he was commissioned to speak about firms of the future, benefiting from web-based technology, social media and the virtual client.  More commonly he is engaged to present the following talks:

• Protecting your practice – from negligence claims and worse
• Make more profits from your smaller clients
• Dealing with difficult clients
• What to do when your NetWorking is NotWorking
• ‘Social media’ – Should accountants ignore it or explore it?
• ‘Social’ media strategies for accountancy firms
• How to secure referrals FROM accountants

Further details of each of these talks are provided below.

NB: On 24th May 2012 Mark is speaking at two masterclasses in London addressing (respectively) Twitter & other social media, and LinkedIn for Accountants. Full details here.

 

Protecting your practice – from negligence claims and worse

This is a unique and valuable talk highlighting many of the ways that professional negligence claims arise and what you can do to avoid them.

Mark Lee, FCA CTA (Fellow), Chairman of the Tax Advice Network and a past Chairman of the ICAEW Tax Faculty, shares tips and lessons drawn from his extensive experience in practice and from acting as an expert witness in court.

Mark starts by putting such matters in context and identifies the all too common scenarios that can lead to professional negligence claims. What is it that can and does go wrong and what can ambitious professionals do to minimise the risks of a successful claim?

Amongst the topics addressed are:

• What needs to be proved when a claim is made?
• Tempting but typically poor defences
• Tax issues and topics that can so easily lead to claims
• Dozens of tips and practical advice to minimise the risks of a claim
• Why you need to think carefully before suing for unpaid fees
• How to dump the duff d-list clients who cause most problems

Make more profits from your smaller clients (without fancy schemes)

This unique session has been highly rated by over a thousand accountants and tax advisers around the country since it was first presented in 2001.

Mark Lee, FCA CTA (Fellow), Chairman of the Tax Advice Network and a past Chairman of the ICAEW Tax Faculty, shares tips and lessons drawn from his extensive experience in practice. He also distils much of the best advice he has collated from a variety of other sources over the years. This is all focused around seven key practical and commercial strategies.

Amongst the topics addressed are:

• Innovative billing strategies that work
• Adding value to compliance related services
• The key choices you need to make
• Understanding your tax service matrix
• Avoiding the loss of high value clients
• What other firms are doing and why

Dealing with difficult clients

In an ideal world none of us would have to deal with difficult clients. Sadly though we cannot easily dictate their behaviour or sack them all – especially if we don’t have responsibility for sacking difficult clients.

Mark Lee, FCA CTA (Fellow), Chairman of the Tax Advice Network and a past Chairman of the ICAEW Tax Faculty, draws on his extensive experience in practices of all sizes and shares tips and advice as to how you can deal with difficult clients.

Amongst the topics addressed are:

• The different types of difficult clients we encounter
• The options – realistically speaking!
• Relationship strategies
• Specific situations that arise and how to overcome them
• Seven key steps that will help

Net…ing: Taking the ‘work’ out of Networking
Or ‘What to do when your networking is not working’

At last! A Business networking talk by a professional who has put all of the theory into practice and who knows what works in real life scenarios.

Mark Lee, FCA CTA (Fellow), Chairman of the Tax Advice Network and a past Chairman of the ICAEW Tax Faculty, shares tips and lessons about business networking drawn from many years of successful networking experience in practice. He also distills much of the advice proffered by other ‘networking’ experts.

Amongst the topics addressed are:

• Key things to do before you attend a networking event;
• Ways to maximise the opportunities during the event;
• Critical actions to take afterwards
• The 5 things you must A.V.O.I.D. when networking

‘Social media’ – Should accountants ignore it or explore it?

The papers and even some professional publications are constantly talking about social media such as twitter, facebook, Linkedin and various online forums that seem to proliferate almost daily. There is far too much hype and too many self proclaimed ‘experts’ offering advice as to how accountants could use social media.  How relevant is all this really to accountants in practice? And how easy is it to to get started if you should choose to do so?

Mark Lee has been active within the social media space since 2006 and has spoken and written extensively about the subject for accountants and tax advisers. Unlike many so-called social media experts Mark has a deep understanding of what really matters to accountants and he talks about social media in a way that ensures it is relevant, commercial and practical. He offers the truth about social media – without the hype!

Amongst the topics addressed are:

• What is all the fuss about?
• How you can utilise social networks to benefit your practice
• Understanding what is involved and the trade-offs you need to make
• All that strange new terminology – saying what you mean
• Comparing the different platforms and opportunities (incl Linkedin, twitter, facebook)
• Key tips and advice on how to get started
• Clarifying common misconceptions
• Do you need a twitter strategy and how you could start to use this communication tool

‘Social’ media strategies for accountancy firms

This talk is aimed at partners in medium sized and larger firms of accountants. Rather than explaining the basics of social media the focus is on the strategic issues for firms that are considering whether they should be more involved in exploiting ‘social’ media for business purposes.

Mark Lee has been active within the social media space for over 3 years and has spoken and written extensively about the subject for accountants and tax advisers. Unlike many so-called social media experts Mark has a deep understanding of what really matters to accountants and he talks about social media in a way that ensures it is relevant, commercial and practical.

Amongst the topics addressed are:

• What is online ‘social’ networking and how relevant is it to accountants?
• What do you need to know and what do you need to do?
• How much of the social media puff can you safely ignore?
• Practical and commercial tips re twitter, facebook and linkedin

How to secure referrals FROM accountants

Further details of this talk – which Mark also presents, with more detail and insights, as a half day masterclass, are available from the dedicated website: www.ReferralsFromAccountants.co.uk

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You may also have heard Mark speak on a number of other topics. Please contact Mark to discuss any special requests that you might have. You can access his speaker profile here.