Redefining your role as a bookkeeper is changing whether you are ready for it or not. The fundamental services are changing and new services are evolving. It is the SME owner who is driving change, seeking ways to improve efficiencies to stay above the competition and to ensure sustainable gross profit margins
Business skills
New generation business owners are too savvy to see value in rudimentary work which a non-professional, equipped with accounting software knowledge, can complete in a few key strokes.
Prospective clients want to work with a firm that thinks the way they do: using technology to connect and leveraging existing systems to add value to their business. With companies like Xero, MYOB, Reckon, and their add-on partners such as Creditor Watch (credit ratings agency) and TSheets (which commoditises time keeping/tracking) the role of the bookkeeper is being squeezed in every direction.
Climbing the pyramid
Calling oneself a professional or an advisor is no longer a ticket to higher revenue. Think of a business owner in the music industry who ignored tech-driven disruption and become redundant to the new waves of artists when, first Napster and then iTunes, carved up the music industry.
Consider the pyramid as a guide for 2016-17.
Despite the myth that it is only university-educated accounting professionals who can call themselves ‘advisors’, the fact is that any business-minded bookkeeper can be a ‘trusted advisor’. With a fundamental grasp of accounting fundamentals (which is, after all the ‘language’ of business) and an application to contemporary tech-driven systems, a professional can, with some professional development and experience, aspire to move through the three levels of the bookkeeping business pyramid.
Learning to pitch your services
Integral to moving up the pyramid is the development of both soft skills as well as the structuring of client presentations: in short, pitching for new business is an essential skill for the upwardly mobile bookkeeper. Once you feel comfortable positioning yourself as the trusted advisor, you can begin pitching your new services to your clients. Advisory services will not make sense for all your clients. It will also take time to roll out to the clients they do suit. It is worthwhile looking for the low hanging fruit (see out resource on this).
In the pyramid, the role of the professional or firm at any level is self-explanatory and can apply to any industry – for example hospitality or construction – located anywhere.
From there it’s a case of figuring out what matters to the business owner and configuring the logistics and understanding the nomenclature for a particular industry and offering service packages not locked into hourly rates.
Practitioners are going to need to know how to explain the numbers to their clients. What do they mean? What can they tell us about how the business is performing?
Presenting tools that improve cash flow, increase productivity is now within a bookkeeper’s grasp given the vast array of add-ons now being on offer.
Despite the myth that it is only university-educated accounting professionals who can call themselves ‘advisors’, the fact is that any business-minded bookkeeper can be a ‘trusted advisor’. With a fundamental grasp of accounting fundamentals (which is, after all the ‘language’ of business) and an application to contemporary tech-driven systems, a professional can, with some professional development and experience, aspire to move through the three levels of the bookkeeping business pyramid.
Learning to pitch your services
Integral to moving up the pyramid is the development of both interpersonal skills as well as the structuring of client presentations: pitching for new business. Once you feel comfortable positioning yourself as the trusted advisor, you can begin pitching your new services to your clients. Advisory services will not make sense for all your clients. It will also take time to roll out to the clients they do suit. It is worthwhile looking for the low hanging fruit (see out resource on this).
In the pyramid, the role of the professional or firm at any level is self-explanatory and can apply to any industry – for example hospitality or construction – located anywhere. From there it’s a case of figuring out what matters to the business owner and configuring the logistics and understanding the nomenclature for a particular industry and offering service packages not locked into hourly rates.
Practitioners are going to need to know how to explain the numbers to their clients. What do they mean? What can they tell us about how the business is performing?
Presenting tools that improve cash flow, increase productivity is now within a bookkeeper’s grasp given the vast array of add-ons now being on offer.