At a time when many accounting firms are planning to get into the so-called business advisory space it’s important to think about the type of personal characteristics that are most suited to success as an advisor because the characteristics that are exhibited by great compliance people are not necessarily those that suit business advisory. Here are my thoughts.
Continue reading “Some Thoughts on the Characteristics of Great Business Advisors”Author: Ric Payne
A case study on how a Principa member worked with the team of a small client to kick off a business development project
For background on the case the client was a £350,000 light engineering partnership paying annual accounting fees of around £800. We’ll let the business development manager in the firm take over the story…
Continue reading “A case study on how a Principa member worked with the team of a small client to kick off a business development project”If you want to change business outcomes, adopt an inclusive management style
When I first became interested in the idea of pro-active business management in the mid 1970’s the prevailing sentiment at the time was that you had to be tighter, tougher, leaner, meaner or die. Being youthful and mentally aggressive I was seduced by this notion. Fortunately, I was teaching at the time so I didn’t have much opportunity to let myself loose on an unsuspecting business community.
Continue reading “If you want to change business outcomes, adopt an inclusive management style”Accurate Problem Identification is Difficult and Failure to do so is Dangerous
In business the symptoms of problems are not difficult to see but for the most part they are assumed to be the problem. This is also one of the reasons why KPIs can often result in “corrective” action being misdirected.
Continue reading “Accurate Problem Identification is Difficult and Failure to do so is Dangerous”What Makes a Good Business Advisor or Consultant
I once read that a consultant is a person who consults, and an advisor is a person who advises. I can’t think of a more stupid way of defining a concept but for my purpose I will consider them to do the same thing which in a business context is to help the management team of the business achieve the full potential of the business by bringing an outside perspective and different skill set to bear.
Continue reading “What Makes a Good Business Advisor or Consultant”A Business is a Machine in Two Parts
I’ve been reading Ray Dalio’s book Principles and thinking about it in the context of creating and developing an adaptive professional services firm. This figure from the book is accompanied by this comment:
Continue reading “A Business is a Machine in Two Parts”Smarter Makes More Sense Than Smart
Whenever you read a piece on goal setting and planning you will inevitably be advised that your goals should conform to a variant of the SMART acronym:
Specific
Measurable
Ambitious
Realizable
Time bounded
I’m sure you can think of a bunch more words for the acronym but I also think it makes sense to add two more letters to make it SMARTER while you’re at it:
S M A R T E R
- Specific
- Measurable
- Ambitious
- Realizable
- Time bounded
- Engaging
- Related to strategy
And come to think of it, let’s make it SMARTEST:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Ambitious
- Realizable
- Time bounded
- Engaging
- Strategically aligned
- Transformative
But most importantly, don’t let it be STUPID:
S T U P I D
- Short sighted
- Time wasting
- Unattainable
- Pernicious
- Incapable of directing action
- Divisive
Should You be Considering a Merger, Sale or Acquisition?
Before jumping into a merger or sale, you should stop and think about the consequences and whether it makes sense from the viewpoint of them offering a better quality or a broader range of services to your clients and/or whether it will improve your long-term profitability or survival prospects through internal efficiencies from scale.
Continue reading “Should You be Considering a Merger, Sale or Acquisition?”41 Zig Zigler Quotes to Live Life By
- A goal properly set is halfway reached
- A goal is a dream with a deadline.
- A lot of people quit looking for work as soon as they find a job.
- Building a better you is the first step to building a better [my edit] family, business, community, country, and world.
A dozen questions to ask before starting a business
- Who will be your customers?
- Why will they want your product/service?
- How many of them exist and how will you get to them?
- How much will they be willing to pay?
- Why will your customers talk positively about your product/service?
- What will your product/service cost to create, deliver and support?
- How easy will it be to start this business?
- How much capital will you need to start?
- How will you defend it against competitors?
- How easy will it be to scale the business?
- How much capital will you need to scale it?
- Why do you want to do this?
If you don’t know the answers, or at the very least have a good feel for them then save your time and money and don’t start.