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...
What persuaded Martin Wardle to give up a partnership in one of the fastest growing firms in the Northeast to start his own business, not in general accountancy, but as a specialist tax boutique focusing only on tax returns. What were the triggers for that event happening? In the course of this podcast with Martin Wardle of TH WARD, we cover a lot of ground, including the pace of technology and where Martin sees the future of accountancy going. He also tells some great stories abo...
Given the current pace of technology, how can you know how it will impact your firm? Well, you obviously can't know for sure, but isn't it good to get an insider's viewpoint on how technology will change things? In this podcast with Derek Granger of Aris Growth, Derek talks about where he works and how he sees the changes coming through into today’s firms, changes that will have a significant impact, not only on recruitment and training, but also on fundamental work practices. To ...
When we discuss technology in relation to accounting, it seems that there has been a rapid pace of change with technology for years now, and it's only accelerating. And with the advancements in artificial intelligence, perhaps the speed of change will accelerate even more. When I interviewed Luke Farren of The Modern Firm recently on the podcast, I felt that Luke's comments about why accounting needs shaking up are certainly worth a listen. To hear more, join me and Luke at Humani...
When someone with an engineering background moves into accountancy, what skills do they bring along with them? What struck me in this podcast with Gareth Burton of Assure UK was Gareth's curiosity about the way that accountancy is carried out and the potential improvements to processes that can happen across virtually every part of our business. Gareth has got that down to a tee. To listen to more of that and to further useful insights about how and why Gareth set up his firm in t...
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...
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