Taking time out for a working holiday in Morocco
I take a working holiday to warmer climates to escape the winter and to create focused time working on a project. This year I wrote the first draft of my second book Scale Your Sales, but then another surprise project materialised.
I spent six weeks in Morocco. I took my book outline, and within days of arriving I secured a local data SIM for internet access, drafted a work plan and started writing. My target was to write 1,500 words a day, but I was soon beating this target. The writing and research were going well all through Christmas and New Year celebrations.
I would wake and jog along the beach at sunrise, after breakfast, I sit down for the day to write, with a break on the balcony I would continue to work until my brain was completely fried. Dinner was at 7pm followed by a relaxing evening speaking to family and friends or watch movies.
Atlas mountains
The uninterrupted days were interspersed with massages, reading, visits to the Hammam, a tour of the Atlas mountains, a few socials with other tourists in local bars. You can see my many posts of this time on my Instagram channel.
I have enjoyed these working retreats for many years and would highly recommend it if you have the flexibility to make space in your life for an extended working holiday.
The benefit of a long retreat is the expanse of space for uninterrupted creative thinking. Creative thinking is simply the ability to look at the thing in a new was, to make a new connection, to problem solve and to see things differently. It is said, that creative thinking encourages self-expression and allows you to distinguish yourself from the crowd. During this time, I am my most productive and I deliver my best work because I have the thinking space to do so. I do not see this as a luxury but as a necessity for my business.
“I wonder how much better your company would be if you were able to take stock every year?”
Big projects
It is essential to have a compelling reason for any big projects; otherwise, you will get distracted and lose momentum. I know the book writing process is an endurance race that is not complete when the book is written or even published. The hardest bit for me is to get started on connecting coherent ideas into relevant strategies and models.
“What important project could benefit from you taking yourself away and dedicating focused time on starting and completing the project?”
Here is my process of planning for any successful business project that provides a solution relevant to an audience.
What’s Your Reason Why?
My reason for writing was to get my Scale Your Sales system in a format that was easily accessible and widely available to my audience. I had developed the model from my work developing sales teams in Key Account Management using strategic sales tools and social selling methods. The first task in any project is to understand your reason why and create clarity on the objective of the project. Your reason and intention may be lead generation, credibility building, passive income, or new business opportunities, but establish it up front.
Why You or Your Business?
What unique perspective, experience or skill do you or your business have that no one else has that an audience needs to help solve a problem? I had the experience and knowledge; however, there was always a niggling feeling around the impact this book would create, something I need creative time to explore. While writing the Scale Your Sales draft book, there were more significant ideas germinating on the bigger sales transformation, which did not easily fit into my Scale Your Sales model.
If like me you want your project to become one of the most powerful marketing assets in your business portfolio, potentially earning you multiple media appearances, speaking opportunities, more clients, consulting contracts and new product development, then there is a process that you need to ensure your project is successful.
- Begin with the end in mind and ask what do you want your project to do for you and your business?
- List your objectives in order of priority; here is mine:
- Create thought leadership.
- Secure paid global speaking opportunities.
- Land opportunities for consulting and masterclasses.
- ‘If you build it and they will come’ does not work so list the audiences that your objective will have the highest impact on, this your project's community.
- Nurture and engage the community with survey and updates long before the project is ready to launch.
- Market and promote the creative process and the launch strategy long before the project launches, the sales strategy must all be well executed if the project is to be a success.
Regardless of your business objective, for
your project to have a significant business-building impact, it is crucial to have clarity when undertaking an energy-intensive project.
Writing a book can become a meaningful brand and business opportunity only if the book is relevant and compelling to your target community of potential buyers. The best way to ensure that they do come, get them involved and invested in discussing the content and adding value to the solution. Excellent sources of answers to your research questions include Quora, Ask the Public, Industry forums on social media and survey platforms.
The critical thing is not to go through the agony of writing a book or investing in a project unless you have evidence that there is an audience to buy it. I plan to continue interviewing industry experts, as I am aware that my perspective is not the only consideration.
I want the book to have a unique value proposition, and I have read the books my target audience would have read, to get the audience perspective and a clear idea of the gaps in the market. Some of the expert interviewees may add to the recommended reading, which will help create a blueprint.
Get a Mentor
You would not start a business or advise anyone to do so without first doing diligent research on the target audience, the product and seek professional advice from someone who has done something similar.
If you have never written a book before and would like to then I would recommend The Ultimate Guide to Writing and Marketing a Bestselling Book - on a Shoestring by Dee Blick, I have written one chapter on self-publishing, but this book gives you everything you need to know. There are many decisions to make, and it is best to have an overview of the options, the pros and cons. Whether you decide to self- publish, hybrid or go with a publisher, you must develop your community early in your book writing project.
There is no point writing a book or doing any project if it is not going to get found by the audience, it was created to help. The marketing and sales are as essential as the creation of the product unless you invest in the promotion then you will not generate the impact and the sales worthy of your energy investment.
The surprise project that materialised was that I had material for another book that take the perspective of the buyer rather than the seller – watch this space!
I have some exciting sales strategies to share with you at Accountex, make sure you book your seat for: 6 Ways to Scale Your Sales Building Brand. Janice will be speaking at Accountex on May 2 in the Sales and Marketing Theatre at 11am.
ACCA offers members free IRIS OpenSpace storage
In a bid to remove GDPR pressures and improve client communication, the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA) is announcing a partnership with IRIS to offer IRIS OpenSpace free of charge to members.
The move comes as the industry continues to grapple with GDPR processes while looking to improve collaboration and communication with clients.
Exchanging sensitive and confidential information with clients is an important part of the accountancy professional’s daily routine, but many are still facing issues with insecure email, expensive file sharing sites and compliance with UK data protection requirements.
Steve Cox, chief evangelist of IRIS Software Group explains: “Access for ACCA members helps streamline compliance, and with MTD for VAT coming into force very soon, every single efficiency gain is now crucial to a firm’s success.
IRIS OpenSpace allows accountants to securely share a draft set of accounts, a tax return or a financial statement with the client, and clients can send bank statements, payslips and electronically approve documents sent from their accountant.”
The agreement comes on the back of the memorandum of understanding signed between IRIS and ACCA last year. It allows ACCA members to create an IRIS OpenSpace account with 1GB of free storage, enabling them to securely upload, store and approve documents. The portal can be customised with a practice’s own branding and is accessible from any location and any device.
Claire Bennison, head of ACCA UK says: “We constantly look at ways we can add benefits for our members, such as providing useful tools which will help them thrive in the digital accountancy economy.
"With an average annual spend of £500 for secure document exchange, the partnership with IRIS provides a tangible benefit which allows practices to focus on what they do best.”
Building a successful accounting practice requires digital at its heart
Excellent and well managed clients, as well as effective talent management, are the essence of a successful practice. But providing clients with a modern and high value service is more than just bringing in fresh blood to the practice. Transforming your practice requires a mindset change and a willingness to leverage technology.
Practices have traditionally been focused on partners and a limited range of services including compliance as well as, optionally, advisory services.
Client loyalty has been of paramount importance and the lifeblood of the business has been recurring fees.
Driving down prices
But compliance and accounts production, including straightforward tax, are becoming homogenous products, which is driving down prices. The overlay of advisory work is no longer optional.
And while MTD might seem daunting, it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the accounting profession to change the way it operates.
It offers accountants a real opportunity to provide clients with an improved service, while also increasing the profitability of their practice. There’s no option to opt out, and firms that are not on the front foot with the changes, will suffer.
Process improvement
Moving the majority of your work onto the cloud, maximizing the benefits automation can bring you, as well as its scalability and the process improvement it brings too, will change how your practice works – for the better.
The process of change can affect all areas of practice, including how fees are billed. Again, the gulf is widening between those firms still billing on a traditional, annual basis and those adopting a regular subscription-based model (usually including the cost of the cloud software).
This second group are already seeing benefits in their cashflow and profitability figures. The value of a practice with a regular, monthly set of recurring fees will move ahead of those that stick with an annual billing model. There should be little sympathy for the practice that fails to embrace new technology.
Digital represents some real challenges, but its introduction can’t be ducked. It must be seen as an opportunity to change the way your practice works. If you do this successfully, your practice can become more attractive to clients, more agile, efficient and profitable, and consequently worth more at retirement or sale.
If practice transformation is an issue for you and your practice to resolve, then come and meet the Foulger Underwood team on stand 490 at Accountex on 1-2 May. If you’d like to speak beforehand, please email Julia Whistler at [email protected].
Foulger Underwood are M&A and strategy consultants focused on the accounting, legal, trust and corporate service and wealth management sectors.
Sage automates salary and supplier payments with Modulr
Sage has partnered with high-growth UK payments fintech Modulr to simplify the task of managing accounts payable and payroll payments.
Sage Salary and Supplier Payments, will allow businesses and their accountants to securely manage and process payments from directly within the Sage Accounts and Payroll products.
A key part of the success of small businesses is their ability to access high-quality and responsive banking services. Initiatives such as Open Banking and the RBS Alternative Remedies Package are creating new opportunities for digital alternatives to increase the competitiveness of these services.
The Modulr and Sage partnership aims to improve the payments offerings available to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and accountants; helping to bring much needed innovation and competition to the UK SME banking and payments market.
Sage Salary and Supplier Payments, powered by Modulr, will allow business owners, payroll managers, accounts payable administrators, payroll bureau and accountants to securely process payments directly from Sage Business Cloud Accounting and Sage Payroll products. The seamless and automated payment service will be delivered to Sage customers across the UK using Modulr’s award-winning payment accounts that provide access to payment services 24/7, 365 days of the year.
The solution will allow customers to eliminate manual payment processes, preventing costly errors and risk of sensitive payment data being compromised whilst benefiting from the time saved by automated reconciliation of payment data. Importantly, Sage’s Accountant and Payroll Bureau Partners will be able to benefit from delegated service access – allowing the accounting practice to seamlessly control and manage payments processing on behalf of their whole client base, while simultaneously reducing practice overheads.
Seamus Smith, executive vice president global payments and banking at Sage, says: “Being able to pay employees and suppliers on time is an essential part of modern business. By enabling our SME customers and accountant partners to automate vital financial processes directly from our products, we can exceed their expectations. This will help them to save time on administrative processes, take control of the flow of money through the software, improve data security and reduce costs.
“Modulr brings significant industry expertise that offers us the opportunity to expand the capabilities of our solution with new functionality and geographies, together with specific support for the development of our partner channels.
“Customers and accountants will further benefit from real-time visibility of payments, seamless reconciliation of payment data into Sage’s Accounting and Payroll products and role-based access controls, meaning that they can track and manage a full audit trail of activity pertaining to outgoing payments, which will give them full control of a crucial part of their business.”
Myles Stephenson, chief executive of Modulr, added: “Our Payments as a Service API platform enables our partners to quickly and easily integrate new payment services into their core products. Our innovative partnership with Sage will enable SMEs to address the significant burden created by existing inefficient payment processes. Our fully integrated service provides a fast, easy and reliable alternative to processing payments via traditional business and corporate banking.”
The new Sage Salary and Supplier Payments, powered by Modulr, is now available to existing Sage Payments customers and new and existing Sage customers.
MTD roadshows by Wolter Kluwer
There has never been a stronger push to embrace digitalisation in the tax and accounting industry, but MTD is just the beginning.
It will fundamentally change how your practice operates, how regularly you’ll need to collect data and how you’ll communicate with your clients.
The move to digital goes beyond just using digital data and software. It is a chance to future-proof your processes and create new services.
By using the right strategies and implementing the latest digital technology, your MTD preparations could catapult your practice ahead of the curve.
CCH OneClick is a complete solution to enable your practice and clients to truly embrace digitalisation and the transition to MTD.
Join one of Wolters Kluwers' half-day MTD Roadshows at SIX locations across the UK this March to find out more about how we can help you to make the most of this opportunity for growth and the end-to-end digitalisation of your practice.
Here’s a taste of what we’ll be covering:
- The state of the nation: The 5 challenges facing our industry in 2019
- Future-proofing your practice beyond MTD
- How to achieve end-to-end practice digitalisation
- Setting up your practice and clients for success with CCH OneClick
THE ROADSHOWS
- 5th March - Newcastle
- 6th March - Leeds
- 7th March - Birmingham
- 12th March - Exeter
- 13th March - Bristol
- 14th March - London
Visit the Wolters Kluwer website to see all venues, find out more and book online.
How cloud platforms are automating payroll services for profit
Payroll servicing is evolving to a move towards cloud access and flexibility for you, your clients and their employees.
The day-to-day tasks of annual leave management, payslip distribution, uploading employee hours and backing up your payroll files can be process-driven and handled by cloud technology.
The payroll and HR landscape is fast evolving as business savvy payroll bureaus move towards new-world online technologies. Be ready to offer a new level of payroll and HR related services by embracing cloud innovation.
Download THIS GUIDE now to see how new cloud technologies are positively impacting the way bureaus and accountants offer payroll services.
State of Mobile report 2019 – 10 facts for the accountant
The top-level findings in the industry’s leading annual mobile insights report ‘State of Mobile 2019’ suggest that there is no longer any industry or company that can afford to ignore mobile and in 2019, it will be the vital thread that runs through the entire business world. The trend toward mobile is set to have massive ramifications for every industry and in the report compiled by App Annie, mobile is predicted to continue to rapidly grow and deliver a real opportunity for businesses looking to undertake mobile transformation.
Mobile is now firmly at the heart of the digital economy with over 50% of the world’s population — 3.9 billion people —estimated to be online in 2018, and 96% of the world’s population living within range of a mobile network. In 2018, there were over 4 billion mobile devices — inclusive of tablets and phones — with many people in mature markets having multiple devices.
Two key findings in the report relating specifically to the mobile effect in the financial sphere will be of particular interest to accountants. The report finds that global downloads of finance Apps were up 75% from 2016 and there has been a significant growth in sessions in fintech Apps and this is said to indicate their ‘stickiness’ and ability to foster habit forming behaviours.
This is excellent news for accounting firms as it confirms that mobile technology and specifically Apps can be leveraged to deliver better and more profitable client relationships. The role that mobile technology plays cannot be underestimated as it allows accountants to engage with clients on their smartphones and tablets digitally 24X7 and they get to live in their clients’ pockets and at the heart of their mobile lives.
- Global Downloads of Finance Apps Hit 3.4bn in 2018, up 75% From 2016: Of the selected markets, emerging markets like Brazil, India and Indonesia saw the strongest growth in app downloads from 2016 to 2018.
- Global App Downloads Exceeded 194bn in 2018, up 35% From 2016: Mature markets like the US continue to see large, consistent numbers of new downloads annually, but growth has slowed. However, growth in these mature markets is strongest when it comes to indicators of user engagement — sessions and time spent — and consumer spend.
- Fintech Apps Carve Out Larger User Bases and Foster Habit-Forming Behaviours: Growth in sessions of top fintech apps indicate the stickiness of these services and their ability to become weekly — even daily — habits. 2018 marked a turning point for fintech apps, with many making a move into consumer banking. With strong adoption, and a mobile-first strategy, fintech companies represent a clear disruptive threat to the traditional retail banking industry.
- Time Spent in Apps Globally Grew 50% From 2016 to 2018: The 5 categories with the fastest growing global market share were Video Players & Editors, Entertainment, Photography, Tools and Finance, respectively. Combined, total time spent in these 5 categories grew 110% from 2016. Social and Communications apps made up 50% of total time spent globally in apps in 2018, followed by Video Players and Editors at 15% and Games at 10%. Time spent grew from both growth in time spent per device and increases in global install bases.
- The Average Consumer in the US, South Korea, Japan and Australia Has Over 100 Apps on Their Smartphone: South Korea, Canada, the US, Thailand, the UK and Australia all saw significant 2-year growth in the average number of apps installed on smartphone devices.
- Point-of-Sale Fintech App PayPay Saw Meteoric Rise in User Base in First Two Months: PayPay is a fintech app by Softbank in Japan that allows users to pay in-store by scanning a QR code linked to a Yahoo! Wallet account. The app has seen phenomenal adoption since its October 2018 launch. Its smartphone weekly active users (WAU) in Japan have grown 46x over the 4 weeks ending the week of December 2, 2018.
- Over 685 Billion Hours Spent Globally in Social & Comms Apps in 2018, up 35% From 2016: Half of time spent on mobile globally was in Social and Communication category apps in 2018. While time spent in social networking and messaging apps grew year-over-year in 2018, it represented a slightly smaller portion of total time spent on mobile — indicating that mobile's importance continues to spread into other areas of our lives.
- Mobile Transformation Pays Dividends & Dramatically Outperforms GDP Growth in Key Economies: Japan, Brazil and the UK were the top 3 countries where mobile consumer spend advanced significantly faster than overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This reflects the strength of the mobile economy, and how prioritising mobile through infrastructure, education and legislation will continue to have a positive impact on overall GDP.
- Gen Z Defines the World Order Through Mobile: Gen Z (aged 16-24) engages more on average with their most used non-gaming apps than those aged 25 and older. Specifically, Gen Z spends 20% more time and engages with their most-used apps 30% more often than the rest of the population. For Gen Z, mobile is second nature and used across nearly all aspects of life — communication, socializing, shopping, banking, etc. Mobile is non-negotiable to any business hoping to attract this demographic.
- The Average User Checks Their Bank Account on Mobile Nearly Daily in 2018, up 35% From 2016: In 2018, users in the UK checked their bank apps over seven times a week, a reflection of the UK as a fintech hub. This has put pressure on traditional banking to maintain their relevance in the face of fintech competition. Users in Australia checked their bank apps nearly 10 times a per week, fueled by an embedded culture of peer-to-peer transfers within banking apps.
Conclusion
This report makes it clear that 2018 marked a turning point for fintech Apps and their strong adoption represents a threat to those businesses that ignore mobile and continue with traditional methods of communication. Increasingly, mobile is becoming non-negotiable and consumers expect their chosen service providers to adopt a mobile strategy that fits in with the always ‘on’ world and the way they prefer to connect.
App Annie State of Mobile Report 2019
Five challenges facing accountants
The accountancy profession has faced many challenges over the past few years, now is proving to be no exception. Her are some of the key issues and trends that accountancy firms have to contend with.
1. Talent Retention
Accounting firms continue to try and attract the best within the business, and the best firms achieve this by welcoming a diverse and flexible workforce. Diversity, in particular, will remain a key theme. Not only will firms have to negotiate Brexit, and consider what that may mean for any EU nationals on the payroll, but efforts will continue to be made to promote gender diversity and equal pay across the workplace.
2. Client Satisfaction
The way in which all businesses communicate with clients has changed drastically over the past few years. With the rise of social media, in particular, it’s never been easier for clients to share a positive, or negative, experience with the wider world. As such, having an engaging presence through online media is all but essential for most firms today. What’s more, clients are increasingly looking for firms that provide value-add services on top of the bookkeeping or accounting work they have come to expect. Accounting firms that are able to differentiate themselves in some way from their competitors stand themselves in good stead this year.
3. Automation
Automation is nothing new, and the accounting profession certainly won’t be the first – or last – to be automated to some degree. As AI and machine learning become more advanced, the nature of the work that accountants perform will change. It’s not an unrealistic assumption to say that in five years’ time, the majority of rudimentary tasks that were often left to junior accountants, such as data entry, may become fully automated by software programmes.
The main thing for accounting firms to understand is that advancement does not necessarily mean redundancy. There will likely always be a need for a qualified accountant to look over a client’s tax return or accounts, particularly when an issue arises that’s out of the ordinary.
However, accounting firms may want to help future-proof their firms by focusing their services towards areas that aren’t at such a high risk of automation, such as advisory work.
4. Technology
Technology continues to grow, and new trends, such as data analytics, are front and centre of discussions. Accounting firms that can successfully extract key trends and information from data analysis will be able to find even more opportunities to engage clients, as well as make better decisions that positively benefit their firm.
However, coupled with these advances in technology will be the need for accounting firms to keep themselves safe online. Cybercrime in particular will be a threat to accounting firms, due to the amount of sensitive data that firms have on clients, and steps should be taken to ensure that there are sufficient IT security and staff training policies in place to protect clients’ data.
5. Brexit
Brexit has been on the lips of most professional services firms ever since the leave vote was declared back in June 2016. With the final details of Brexit yet to be decided, the issue remains a key one for accounting firms.
What’s more, there remains considerable uncertainty within the financial services industry following Theresa May’s comments that the government would not continue passporting post Brexit. At the moment, financial passporting permits finance companies in the UK to sell their services across the EU without sourcing a licence to operate in each member country.
Although mention was made of a new deal that would still allow for sales to be made across the EU, any concrete details remain to be seen.
Until such time as the final agreements become clear, accounting firms should at least expect increased work from clients who are undertaking or plan to undertake restructuring to accommodate a hard Brexit. Indeed, continued communication with clients to keep them updated on the latest developments will be crucial at this time.
Cloud platforms are central to the future of payroll
Payroll servicing is evolving to encompass a move towards cloud access and flexibility for you, your clients and their employees. Be ready to offer a new level of payroll and HR related services by embracing cloud innovation.
Up to now, the process of managing your clients' annual leave requests, recording leave, sending payslips and payroll reports, updating contact details and accurately recording employee hours on behalf of clients can be time-consuming and costly. Payroll software systems can only take you so far when it comes to finalising payroll and issuing payslips, but what about those other payroll related tasks? Simple questions such as ‘How much annual leave have I left?’, ‘Can you resend my last three payslips?’ or ‘Can I request a week’s annual leave?’ can become a daily, time-consuming process.
Another time consuming part of payroll is requesting and receiving employee hours and timesheets from your payroll clients. Today, managing and tracking this information is much easier thanks to online tools and applications. Furthermore, an online payroll approval facility allows bureaus to securely send their clients a payroll summary before the payroll is finalised. Clients can review and authorise the payroll details for the pay period through an online employer dashboard. Ultimately, your client becomes accountable for ensuring the payroll information is 100% correct before the payroll is finalised.
Online payroll platforms are central to the future of Payroll
The day-to-day tasks of annual leave management, payslip distribution, uploading employee hours and backing up your payroll files can be process-driven and handled by cloud technology. The payroll and HR landscape is fast evolving as business savvy bureaus move towards new-world online technologies offering:
- Automatic cloud backup
- Client online portal
- Employee self-service & epayslips access
- Employee smartphone app
- Annual leave automation
- Employee hours / timesheet upload
- Client approval functionality
- Payroll audit trail of client communications
- Managed employee records
Your payroll and HR processes can be more integrated with the cloud and streamlined with your payroll software than ever before. Offering payroll services is all about efficiency and there are several exciting developments that are happening right now in the cloud. Download the guide below to find out how feasible it can be for payroll to be your profit centre for growth.
Beyond banks, beyond borders
A survey reveals the need for greater education among UK businesses when it comes to finance.
The study, conducted with over 1,000 UK firms employing more than 10 staff, highlights some prevailing perceptions of UK businesses and underlines several key challenges faced by business leaders in today’s uncertain economic climate.
Beyond banks
While 70 per cent of businesses in the survey commissioned by Growth Street, claimed that they had never considered funding their business other than through their banks, fewer than half (45 per cent ) of respondents indicated that they would talk to their bank first if they were thinking of taking on new funding for their business.
Accountants and brokers were cited as playing an influential role as business advisors, but 26 per cent of respondents were unsure what their first port of call might be when looking for funding. This outlines a clear need for increased education and effective signposting of the appropriate alternatives.
Some responses indicated that alternative finance may be moving towards the mainstream. 54 per cent of survey participants stated that they now have some awareness of the funding options from sources other than their banks.
However, there might be more to do before the sector realises its potential: 45% of respondents claimed that they were ‘not at all confident’ in their knowledge of the alternative finance sources available to them.
Beyond borders
Exporting may well be a potential area of growth for businesses: 66% of our survey respondents didn’t export goods or services at all. (Of those engaged in exporting, only 1% did not sell to EU countries.)
Guidance for new exporters is an issue that may require further thought. In response to the question, ‘Do you agree that enough official guidance and information is made available to businesses who are looking to begin exporting?’, fewer than 20% of respondents strongly agreed. When asked, 'If your business were to require funds to fuel new exports, would you be confident of knowing what kinds of funding might be available?', fewer than 30 per cent of respondents said 'Yes’.
Understanding: the key to business growth
Greg Carter, Growth Street CEO, comments: “With strict lending criteria from the banks, it’s vital for businesses to understand the alternatives that might be available to them. Surveys of this kind deepen our understanding of the needs of growing businesses.
“With international trade having been thrust into the spotlight, I believe potential exporters need significantly more guidance when it comes to exploring new avenues for growth. This could be critical for Britain’s long-term economic prosperity with the process of leaving the EU still under way.”
Read more about the results of our survey in our report which you can download for free here.