The 15 Rules of Advisory Service For Accountants

It doesn’t matter where I look, someone is talking about the need for accountants and bookkeepers to make the move to providing advisory services.  I get it.  This was a complaint I had of my accountant back in 2008.  He could complete and file reports like nobody’s business, but when I asked him what I should do next; he shrugged.

That got me thinking – a shrug – really?

After building software for accountants for the last ten years, I tend to agree that the push for advisory services came initially from the vendors.  But it was because they saw the trend happening and, as opportunity always does, they increased the speed of evolution.

They saw that most accounting tasks could be automated, even done without the help of an accountant.  So how do you help the industry stay relevant and valuable?  You ask them to provide the service that business owners (like the software vendors) need themselves.  They need to know what the numbers mean and what to do next.

So, the shift is happening, and my conversations with accounting professionals reveal an air of uncertainty.  Some don’t know where to start.  Others lack the confidence in giving people advice.  You even have some that believe that their business owners won’t act on the advice they are given.  That’s why I built the Pathfinder Program – a done-with-you advisory services offering that gets you up and running in 90 days, while motivating your clients to act. 

But before that, you should know the ground rules for working with small business owners.  After building 14 companies and working with hundreds of accountants.  I thought it would be helpful to put together a list of rules to shape your attitude about this new service.

Here are the 15 rules for being success when working with business owners.

• Dollars Make Sense
  • When you translate your advice into the financial impact of not taking your advice, you get my attention.

• Be Someone Who “Gets” Me
  • D.U.M.B. means you Don’t Understand My Business.  There are 5 types of businesses you should know the common problems of, and there are 4 different social styles.  When you know these types and styles, you speak my language better.

• Innovation Is Needed In The Future
  • Don’t be the NO in innovation and help me find simple ways to innovate when I can differentiate.  Your expertise with numbers should help me identify the signal from the noise.

• Failure Is Always A Possible Result
  • Help me remember that a crisis doesn’t end until I’ve learned something from it. We both should be changing and growing together, and sometimes the answer is to learn and move on.

• Motivate Like A Psychologist
  • Let’s face it the money is the most basic of the needs of running a business, but recognition and status also matter.  The key is to get me involved emotionally where I can “self-actualize”, meaning I work just for the work alone.  Doing better is its own reward.

• People Need Boxes
  • Boundaries and limitations are the greatest contributors of innovations.  We love to solve problems and constraints help us do that.  So instead of thinking outside the box, find a new box.

• Stop Wasting Everyone’s Time
  • Setting unrealistic targets, having meetings just for the sake of time that was paid for, and hanging onto mediocre or losing projects is no good for anyone.

• Planning Is Everything
  • Ironically, most of the time the plan is nothing.  Meaning that it is more important to think through the process and know that most plans change once you start to execute. 

• Little Things Change Relationships
  • 3% of the people you work with will let you know there is a problem.  Most people just don’t speak up and disengage from working with you.  The most critical time is when there is a problem.  Having a solution is your best chance at saving a relationship.

• The Goal Is More Work, Not Less
  • In a time when everyone is looking to find easier ways to do things, it doesn’t mean they want to do less work.  It means that they are finding ways to increase their capacity and do more revenue generating activities.  Success breeds success.

• Develop A Knack For Good Timing
  • We want to pay you for thinking rather than doing.  Your success as an advisory will be determined by how you consume information and deliver it to us when we need it most.

• Too Much Agreement Is Bad
  • When we start to agree with everything you say, chances are we left the conversation.  Either you concept is too bland, we don’t understand it and don’t want to be embarrassed, or we are intimidated by the way you deliver it.  Understand that nobody is thinking if we are all thinking alike.

• Most Of The Time We Cause Our Own Chaos
  • You really have a lot more power than you think.  Use it to help us identify the problems that we cause ourselves, especially when they seem to be recurring problems.  The caveat is that you can’t solve every problem.  So realize that some problems aren’t worth knowing about – focus on the things that matter.

• Do More Than I Expect You To
  • When we hear the word average, we think that it’s a “C”.  No business owner strives to be an average player or work with an average advisor.  Find ways to delight clients with value and education.

• Strategy & Tactics Do Not Change, Only Their Application
  • Modern business financial management has been around since the 1950’s.  Most of the financial concepts still apply, but the way we execute them has changed.  The biggest thing to remember is that good (relevant) tactics will save a bad strategy, and bad tactics will kill a good strategy.

Before you invest in the time and energy it takes to build out an advisory service offering, take some time to consider what your clients will expect from you.  This list was built from conversations I’ve had with my friends who own businesses.  They represent the common theme of needing you to be a team member who can help them make better decisions.  This list should help you relate to them in a more meaningful way.

Above I mentioned a program I developed to help you get up and running or reinvigorate your current offering.  If you’d like more information on how it works, email me at [email protected]

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P.S. Whenever you’re ready… here are 4 ways Mike can help you improve Cash Flow in your business.

1. Grab a free copy of my book:

In The 7 Minute Conversation, you’ll learn how to analyze any company’s financial statements in 7 minutes or less. It includes a super valuable lesson on controlling expenses. — Download Here.

2. Join the Clear Path To Cash – Mining Your Business For Hidden Cash Facebook Community:

This is our new Facebook community where business owners who are using the concepts taught in The Clear Path To Cash can share lessons learned and receive advice from my team and other members of the community. — Join Our Facebook Group.

3. Participate in a Live Virtual Clear Path To Cash Seminar:

There are some people who prefer to learn concepts through self-study through books or video series.  For others, such as myself, it is necessary to be in a classroom environment and to be guided through the concept.  We offer a Virtual Seminar each month.  It takes only three hours each day for two days, during which you will learn about The Clear Path to Cash Program’s eight steps. 

I am so passionate about this one that I teach it myself. — Virtual Seminar.

4. Work with me and my team privately:

If you’d like to go over something outside of a group setting, no problem.  All you have to do is click this link to schedule a 15-minute Quick Action Call. In 15 minutes, we see if my team can help you with your problem.  Sometimes we can give you some advice on the spot, other times we will invite you to a longer Burning Issues call, where we dig into the issue a little deeper and give you some great advice.  Even if we don’t believe our program is a good fit for you, we try to connect you with the right professional from our network of friends. —  Schedule Your Quick Action Call.