The Numbers Business

How to grow a successful cloud accountancy practice

Della Hudson

• Publisher: SRA Books
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781912300174
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Financial Accounting
• Index: Business

Shortlisted for the BBA, this is the manual every qualified accountancy professional needs to read before setting up their own practice.

Having applied her corporate experience to building a modern cloud accountancy practice, Della Hudson presents her road map to help you to do the same. Here, she shares her hard-earned knowledge so that other accountancy professionals can grow their own successful, scaleable and even sellable businesses.

This book is a road map that will help a qualified professional to:

• Start a successful business from scratch with no personal or business contacts
• Move from the kitchen table to an office space
• Recruit and train a team of technical and administrative staff
• Create a highly systemised business, which can function independently of the business owner
• Run an ethical business that contributes to the local community
• Host and speak at business events
• Set up a marketing system that operates even during the busiest periods in order to grow the business organically
• Purchase and even sell a business

Chapter 1

Understanding your motivation

It is very important to work out why you want to run your own business.

The most common reasons I come across for starting up on your own come under the following headings:

• To make, and keep, more cash for yourself
• To have a better work–life balance
• To have flexibility for family or other commitments
• To be your own boss

Running a business is hard work and can take over your life. The buck stops with you. There may be months when you are putting money into the business that you thought would be supporting you. When you’re working silly hours while you were hoping to work less. Keeping yourself going through these tough times often comes down to knowing, and remembering, why you’re doing it.

Take some time to work out what feels good in your present role and what is missing. Now focus on what you expect to feel in your new role as business owner. The things that are positives in both are likely to point towards your motivators. You may find it useful to do this exercise on your own where you can be completely honest with yourself. I would also suggest doing it with somebody who knows you well personally as they may be able to give you some insight into what they think makes you tick.

Good reasons to start your own business:

• I’m prepared to work hard to get ahead
• I can see ways to do things better
• Flexible working that is not available elsewhere
• I have an idea
• I’ve always wanted to run my own business

Poor reasons to start your own business (although these may be good reasons to change your job):

• It’s a quick way to make more money
• I have a dreadful boss
• I want an easy life

Capture these motivators somehow. Useful methods are:

• Dreams and desires folder. If you are looking for affluence this could be pictures of your ideal car or second home.
• Mood board. If you are aiming for freedom then add pictures of what this represents to you. If you want a better balance then a picture of your family may be one of the things on your board. Include a few meaningful quotes too.
• Perfect day. Write a description of a typical day in your new life. As well as paying attention to the actual work element, think what you will do with your own time and money and how you hope people will regard you.
• List. This might seem dull but a simple list of what you want out of your business is the right way for some people to motivate themselves.
• A phrase that encapsulates your purpose. It needn’t be a full explanation of what you want to get out of your business. This is not your business purpose that you may need to share with employees but something simple that reminds you of your reason for doing it.

Once you have established your personal motivation you can move on to planning your business in the next chapters.

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My story

I had never had any desire to run my own practice. I’d considered it several times over the years but never felt sufficiently passionate to submit myself to the stress of being my own boss. Although I usually work pretty hard I wasn’t sure that I had the self-discipline to do it for myself either (It turns out that I did!). After qualifying as a chartered accountant in a practice in London, I moved to The Midlands and made the change across into management accounting and financial control.

The type of companies I worked for meant that I was usually part of the management team responsible for running the local operation of a multinational business. Thus I was expected to have a broad range of knowledge but could call on experts at head office. In my different roles I have been responsible for: finance, accounting, IT, human resources (HR), premises, quality, environmental sustainability and almost everything else apart from distribution and sales.

This proved to be perfect training for running my own business where I was expected to know everything or to pay an expert where absolutely necessary.

The reason that I eventually set up my own business (and also the reason I sold it) was my family. I wanted:

Interesting, professional work that fits around family life.

This was written in the front of my very first planning notebook and I referred to it several times over the years when difficult or large decisions had to be made.

This placed a big constraint on my activities in that I had to set up and then grow my business on an average of just 25 hours per week. This compares to other business owners who often work 50–60 hours per week, and 80 hours is quite common. Every hour had to be productive. It wasn’t about maximising my income but increasing my income per hour. As a consequence I became very good at systemising, delegating and automating. This knowledge and experience meant that I was able to do a lot of work with business owners working silly hours who wanted methods to recover the life part of their work–life balance.

This is why you need to be clear on your own motivation so that you do not sacrifice your raison d’être for a good but inappropriate goal.

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Imposter syndrome

When running a business it is very easy to focus on what still needs to be done and to forget how much you have achieved. Whenever somebody describes you as inspirational your mind flits to all the things that you haven’t done. You might even feel that you are unworthy of their praise, and this is known as the imposter syndrome.

It is quite common amongst successful people and you may need to take action to boost your own confidence:

• Document your achievements on a fairly regular basis. This can be privately or as part of meetings with a business coach.
• Celebrate your successes. Open a bottle of something fizzy, treat yourself to something or just allow yourself to feel pleased and proud for a moment.
• Be proud...

Table of contents

• Dedication
• Foreword
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Understanding your motivation
• Chapter 2: Establishing your systems and services
• Chapter 3: Dealing with the formalities
• Chapter 4: Attending networking events and business shows
• Chapter 5: Setting your prices
• Chapter 6: Budgeting and controlling costs
• Chapter 7: Building your team
• Chapter 8: Choosing your software
• Chapter 9: Marketing your business
• Chapter 10: Running training courses
• Chapter 11: Networking through social media
• Chapter 12: Moving into premises
• Chapter 13: Controlling your cash flow
• Chapter 14: Becoming a trusted adviser
• Chapter 15: Speaking at and organising events
• Chapter 16: Buying a business
• Chapter 17: Buying a franchise
• Chapter 18: Deciding your exit strategy
• Chapter 19: Monitoring your management accounts and KPIs
• Chapter 20: Helping the wider community
• Conclusion
• Further resources
• About the author