This time we caught up with Des O’Neill, managing director of OmniPro Group. Des will be joining a panel discussion along with entrepreneur and author Carl Reader, founder of The Upward Spiral Partnership Martin Bisset, and managing director of JE Consulting Jo Edwards, to share insights and answer questions about the best approach to winning new business.
Tell us a bit about your background and how you came to be managing director at OmniPro.
From a very early age I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I read Jeffrey Archer’s Kane and Abel when I was about 11 and from that point onwards I was always going to own my own business. That book lit a fire inside me that has blazed ever since. I wanted to be free and make an impact on the world. As I went through my education I had various junior entrepreneurial ventures, becoming an accountant was a logical next step and when I qualified owning my own firm was not only a desire – it was the only option for me.
In an effort to gain experience as to how to run my own accountancy firm I became a Quality Assurance Officer with one of the Irish Accountancy Institutes. In my short time there as a monitor I learned there was a huge gap between the support the Institutes provided and what the accountancy firm owners on the ground really wanted and needed.
Back in 2003 as a naïve 28 year old along with my 22 year old brother Micheal I set OmniPro fill that gap. We set out to support accountancy firm owners build more profitable and rewarding businesses. We have provided a range to technical, training and consultancy services to Irish accountants over the last 16 years. In the last 2 years I have become solely focussed on our ProfitPro division where we help accountants build better businesses for themselves and their customers too.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of your job?
The most rewarding aspects of my job are hearing the Wins. The Wins and stories I hear from our firm owners have every day.
• The new clients they have won;
• The fee increases they have achieved to reflect the actual value they provide;
• The liquidation of lock up and stabilisation of cashflows;
• The improvements in profitability that allows them to personally improve their financial stability, while creating financial freedom in the future;
• The time flexibility and freedom they have gained to spend on the more important things in life;
• The health and wellbeing improvements they are experiencing by taking action in their business;
• The stories they tell about how changes in their business have positively affected their marriages and relationships with spouses and kids;
• The increased satisfaction they are getting out of their business because of the wins their team and customers are achieving.
And the most challenging?
Although we do not operate as an accountancy firm, we are just like a firm who has a deep niche that just so happens to be accountants. We provide bread and butter technical compliance services like Company Formations and Technical Auditing and Financial Reporting Queries along with more advanced services like Annual Compliance Reviews, Tax Advisory, Restructuring and Tax Planning. Then through ProfitPro we provide top level advisory services.
Our challenges are similar to accountancy firms:
• Attracting and retaining talent so we can deliver the results
• Serving our customers in the way they want to be served that allows us run a profitable and sustainable business
• Maintaining quality control and keeping ahead of all the developments
• Building a systems that produces a steady stream of ideal clients
• Finding the time to do it all
• Implementing the ideas we have
What one tip would you give to accountants to help them succeed?
Adopt 10X thinking.
You are not limited by where you currently are in your business. We are not limited by where we have come from and what has happened in the past. Most people overestimate what they can achieve in one year but underestimate what they can achieve in 10. Think 10x and implement strategically and consistently by focusing on the ONE Thing that is going to get you the result.
What do you want visitors to take away from your session at Accountex Summit North 2019?
Growing your business is ultimately about growing your freedom. Time freedom, financial freedom, relationship freedom and purpose freedom. Before you start growing get really clear and strategic about how your growth is going to grow freedom in your business. The better your strategy and the clearer you are the quicker and easier your growth will be.
How important is Accountex Summit North to the industry?
Accountex North is critical to the accountancy industry because opportunities are lost when accountants do not get out from behind their desk. This is an opportunity to get out there, meet the best of the best, hear the latest insights, see different ways of doing things, mingle with the people on the same journey as you and be open to the possibilities.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
Build your business as a cash generating asset that is not dependent on you. Build your business as if you were going to sell it. Whether you choose to sell it or not is irrelevant. I wish I had been given that advice earlier and heeded it quicker.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself that most people don’t know.
My lifelong ambition is to open up a keynote speech for 1000 accountants by coming on stage on a uni-cycle while juggling. I have perfected the juggling. I have bought the uni-cycle but there is still a bit of work to do to pull it all together…
See Des at Accountex Summit North 2019
Client at the Core in Theatre 3 at 12pm on Tuesday 10 September.
The panel will also feature entrepreneur & author Carl Reader, founder of The Upward Spiral Partnership Martin Bisset, and managing director of JE Consulting Jo Edwards.
To apply for a place to attend the conference, please visit https://eventdata.uk/Forms/Form.aspx?FormRef=ACC99Visitor.