Where is your firm heading?
Change is happening now. Processes that were offshored are now being automated; people are seeking more than dollars from their employment and; clients are expecting more. Where is your firm heading?
We have dreams and goals. We have targets on where we want to be. We have some idea of where we would like our lives to be. Dreams are good. A dream needs to be broken down into goals. A goal needs to be broken down into a plan which is composed of actionable items. How are you going to break down your dreams? You’ve probably pondered this when the year started and maybe even put pen to paper. What about your business?
As a business owner, have you created an entity that is going to grow into a being of its own or have you bought yourself a job where you report to yourself (and the taxman)? Either is fine as long as you know where you are going.
How can a man hit a target that he cannot see? – Zig Ziglar
Stemming from that Zig Ziglar quote, you should have a real picture of where you are heading. Where are you winning your work from? Where are you finding new referrals? How are you generating more work to keep you going well into the years ahead?
Take a moment to look at your lead generation/ marketing plan. How many of the following does it incorporate?
- Fee target for FY15/16
- Fee target for FY16/17
- Value of clients gained in last 12 months – why? (both as dollar value and percentage)
- Value of clients lost in last 12 months – why? (both as dollar value and percentage)
- Resource allocation and appropriate training
- Goals for each quarter, accounting for the ebbs and flows in some months
- Referral sources
- Who?
- How much? As a percentage of all the work you have coming from referrals.
- What type of work? Is it big transactional pieces or regular compliance?
- Where else are they sending their work?
- Why aren’t they sending it to you? More importantly, why are they sending you work? Use the latter to replicate the calibre of that relationship with other referrers.
- Holidays
- When are you taking a break?
- Does the business stop if you stop?
There’s a lot more that goes into this and some firms do this really well for managers and above. Others, just have a one-page document with a lot of fancy words and design that really doesn’t mean much.
Case Study
You currently have roughly $1M fees under management and your aim for growth is to recover the fees you lost last year.
How much? Let’s say $120k. Why?
One client was acquired ($20k), another went to a bigger firm ($40k, they were fairly sizeable), 2 went to a smaller firm ($30k), and others went elsewhere.
So what you’re saying is: last year I had a $1.1M fee base, lost 10% and am aiming to recover that.
Well, how much did you lose the year before? Probably 10%.
So you’re constantly doing the dance between $900k-$1.1M because you haven’t accounted for the clients who will leave this year.
So, you really need $200k in new work. $200k?!?! That’s huge! That’s a big target
Remember the whole bit about dreams being broken into goals, then plans, then actionable points? That’s where you start.
PS if you can win $200k worth of new work every year in the Business Services space – you’re doing exceptionally well!
This is what we speak with clients about on a regular basis. We also have a small group of young accountants and lawyers who catch up and discuss these matters.
Your future is in your hands. Seize it.
Tony Sivaa