Claim OwnershipHumanise The Numbers - for ambitious accountants in practice
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Welcome to the 'Humanise The Numbers' podcast series. Here you'll find a whole series of interviews with the leaders of accounting firms who are building (or have already built) a firm of the future now! You'll hear key insights, key skills and key habits that underpin the success of these firms. Insights, skills and habits that can underpin your firm's future success too. It seems that when an accountancy firm connects their team and their clients to the numbers that really matter to them they transform the results for everyone. This is accelerated when the humanity of the way they work shines through too. That's why we're talking about ambitious accountants humanising the numbers.Here's what a director of a multi-partner multi-national firm said recently ."What I like about your podcasts is that they are real. They are not scripted and I appreciate the fact that your interviewees admit they don’t have all the answers but are willing to let you put that fact out on a podcast. It is what is going on at the front lines of great small accounting practices. I have now listened to about half of them, I intend listening to them all as each one just has a nugget that I am writing down to see if I can use in our practice at some stage."
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This is podcast two of five of the ACCA strategy series. What does an accountancy firm do to make strategy really come to life in their firm? On this Humanise The Numbers podcast, you'll hear Glen, Phil and Gareth from two different accounting firms talk about what has to happen in their firms so that their vision, their purpose, their values really come to life. They’ve worked out how to make it mean something to the directors, the team and their clients. It isn't corporate BS it’s actually...
What can you do to grow the commerciality of your people so that they drive the fees, they drive the profits and they drive the capital value of growth in your accountancy firm. On this Humanise The Numbers podcast discussion with Rob Walsh, you'll hear Rob describe how he grew the commerciality of his team so that he did less, they did more, and they contributed significantly to the growth of fees and the profitability, and ultimately the capital value of the firm too. Rob's story is an inte...
In this Humanise The Numbers podcast interview with Sean Farnell from the six office firm Burgis and Bullock Chartered Accountants in the Midlands, you'll hear Sean sharing his insights and what and how they ensure enough points of contact between the management team and the production team and the impact, the positive impact it has on their firm. You'll also hear how lockdown has brought about great improvements in the productivity of their firm. When on this episode page, please sc...
Where's the value in your firm around pulling together absolute clarity around the behavioral standards, values, and beliefs, that you want to live by in your accountancy firm? Is the hard thinking, hard work going to pay off for you and your firm? Well, on this Humanise The Numbers podcast discussion with Phool and Cheryl, owners and leaders of two different accounting firms, they share their insights on how getting clarity on values has actually paid off for them. Whether it be in recruitin...
This is podcast 3 of 5 of the ACCA Strategy Series Where's the value in having a crystal clear sense of purpose for your accountancy firm? On this Humanise The Numbers podcast discussion, you're going to hear from James Lizars and Steph Rickaby, two sole owners of two modest size accounting firms that think big about their core purpose. And you'll hear Paul Shrimpling ask them, where's the payoff? Where's the value in having and building and creating and living a real sense of pur...
Is it worth the time, the effort, the energy in talking strategy in an accounting firm? Well, this was a question posed to me by ACCA. So, on this Humanise The Numbers podcast you'll hear Douglas Aitken, a colleague of mine, and I talk about the core elements of strategy and how those core elements can deliver a true return on investment for you and your firm. This is podcast 1 of 5 in the ACCA Strategy Series. When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information f...
It's a challenging question to ask you how committed you are to the mental well-being of your team. During tumultuous and trying times it's an important question, and I'm sure you're doing everything you can to facilitate, assist support your team so that they thrive as well as supporting your clients so that they thrive too. In this Humanise The Numbers podcast discussion with Martin Horton of Rivington Accountants, you'll hear Martin share one or two ways that he's helping his clients th...
How do you ensure that you are continually delivering value to clients, so that they never question the fees that you charge, especially in this volatile, uncertain world in which we're living? In this podcast with Phil Hobden of Sage, Phil and I cover several topics that are very relevant to the profession today, including: how do we deliver value? Phil shares some great insights into his nine years working with accountants in a tech space, and also how he's developed a rea...
As an accountant, do you think of yourself first and foremost as a storyteller? Probably not. And I've not met many who do. But in this podcast episode with Paul Miller of Cornish Accounting Solutions, that's exactly what I found. Paul genuinely thinks of himself first and foremost as a storyteller. The reasons for that will become apparent during the podcast, and that's why I highly recommend it to you. In a wide-ranging discussion, Paul and I talk through the importance of clien...
Occasionally, you have the privilege of having a deep conversation with someone who's well-versed in the profession, has worked in industry, has set up multiple businesses, who runs his own accountancy practice and, at the same time, is doing everything he can to influence the success of the profession. That's the discussion that I dived into with Jonathan Gaunt from FD Works. He set up Xavier, which was sold to Dext and became Dext Precision, and then set up Socket. In this conve...
When adversity strikes, how do you react? In this podcast with Donna Field of Autumn HR, we discuss how she faced adversity in the form of a business, one in which she was emotionally and financially invested, disappearing overnight. This ultimately proved the catalyst to setting up what is now a thriving business, with Donna doing work that she loves and bringing huge value to her clients. I really enjoyed my chat with Donna. We talked about a number of things – the importance of...
What does leading your ambitious accounting firm with purpose actually entail? In this podcast with Steve Price of BWP Inspire, Steve shares how they arrived at their core purpose, as well as how they've rolled it out and how they lead with purpose in their firm. He covers a number of thought-provoking subjects in the podcast, including how they totally revamped their annual accounts meeting system to make sure that they covered purpose-related questions, ensuring that they were really ...
Think about the traditional route most accountants follow before going into practice. In this podcast, I explore the route taken by Caroline Carter, of Carter Clear Accounting. You'll find Caroline's route anything but traditional. From having mental health challenges in the house, to a teenage pregnancy, to running a pub – a busy pub – at age 23, Caroline's background is rich and varied, and all of this has served to inform how she runs her successful accounting firm. In th...
How do you get your clients to take monthly information from you, and not only to take that monthly information, but to sit down with you and go through it so that they can fully understand their numbers? In this podcast with Noel Guilford of Guilford Accounting, Noel talks us through how his onboarding process makes sure that only potential clients who value that type of service get through the net, get over the threshold, and become a client of Guilford Accounting. In this conve...
When you have a background in the big four accounting firms, a background in design thinking and a background with a deep desire to be curious and ask lots of great questions... …how does that all come together when you set up a firm later in life with your son? In this wide-ranging conversation with Alasdair McGill, of Ashton McGill, we cover a lot of ground. We discuss the education system and how it often seems to stifle our natural curiosity and diminish our abilit...
When your background is in the corporate world and in the world of startups, how do you harness that experience when it comes to trying to sell a product to accountants that you know that they want, while sometimes dealing with resistance from the accountants themselves? If all of that sounds a curious mix, please join me and Miranda Kendall of Spotlight Reporting on this podcast, where you'll find out the answer to this question and more. Miranda talks very passionately about why...
How many firms do you know that have a Chief Impact Officer? Yep, me neither. So, you may want to join this podcast with myself and Graeme Tennick, of Tennick Accountants, as Graeme talks about his role and about how and why it came into being. There are a number of standout moments in this podcast, not least when Graeme describes how to have the team really working with purpose, with real meaning in their work, all the time. So please join us on the podcast, either via your usual...
What's it like to start an accounting firm with £200, to grow it quickly over a period of five years, and then to decide to exit? And from the start of that exit conversation to completion, for it to take only 25 days? We'll cover all of that and a lot more in this podcast with Laura Taylor from Bright Flamingo. Laura shares how that journey affected her, and she also reveals some secrets along the way that could help you in your own accounting firm. If you want to hear more, join...
A pressing question that every firm, every leader, every manager, should ask themselves is: how do you build long-standing trust with your clients and with your team? In this podcast with Elinor Perry of Pentlands, you'll hear Elinor unpack 20 years of experience of running her firm – from when she bought in to the business to the garden party with 130 customers on a lawn wishing her every success for the next stage of Pentlands. How do you build that level of trust? Elinor ...
How must it feel to found and to grow, over a period of almost 40 years, a busy, vibrant firm, from humble beginnings to over a hundred people? In this podcast with Alan Farrelly of UHY Farrelly Dawe White, based in Ireland, you'll find out how it felt to contend with all of the advances in technology and the other changes that we've seen over the generations, to the point where Alan is thinking of planning for exit. How does that all feel, that journey? You'll find the answers to...
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