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'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...
There is a thing that’s been talked about in the profession for decades, something which has never really got traction in every firm in a leveraged way. It works in some firms in a small way and in a very few firms in a big way. It’s that thing called 'Advisory'. How you move your firm from compliance services to advisory services is an ongoing, almost endless question. And yet, it's normal, it's natural, to have conversations – human being to human being, individual to individual – and...
When you're trying to unlock the potential that you know exists within your team, within your client bank, within your firm as a whole, it can feel frustrating that you just can't seem to get to it, you can't unlock it. In this podcast discussion with Russell Watkins, who's spent 30 years in the lean, process improvement space working with manufacturing and other businesses, we tap into a potential key for you, your team, your firm, to truly get to the levels of performance you believe ...
We know that recruiting great people and keeping them is a huge challenge for your accounting firm, so how do you stand out from the crowd? In this podcast with Sherelyn Cowles, Chief Business Development Officer at Gooding Accounts, we discuss how to build a great culture by identifying and articulating your core purpose and values, and by being very clear about how everyone is expected to behave. We also talk about the importance of ensuring your values, vision, and core purpose...
What does a succession plan look and feel like from the perspective of those that are buying in? And once you’ve got that buy-in, how do you actually manage the expectations of your team and your clients, all while finding out yourself what it's like to be a leader? And when you're up and running, how do you rise above the sea of sameness? You’ll find out the answer to these questions and more in this podcast with Stuart Clark of Russell & Russell Business Advisors in Gl...
If there's a phrase that encapsulates the content of this podcast discussion with Mark Allen, it would be 'applied wisdom'. We tap into Mark's several decades of working within the profession, first as a board director of PLCs, then transitioning into a practice leader, starting up and successfully selling a three-office firm, and finally moving into working with networks for accountants across the UK. Mark is a bit of a hero of mine, overcoming serious health challenges to contin...
In the second part of this 2-part podcast discussion with Stephan Meier, world-renowned author of The Employee Advantage, you'll be able to hear Stephan unpack a large number of insights, ideas and strategies that could ultimately deliver a competitive advantage to you and your firm. So please join Douglas, my colleague, Stephan and I on the second part of this podcast at humanisethenumbers.online.
You'd probably like to get your hands on a competitive advantage that would lead to the future financial success of your firm, one that would enhance, or even transform, the results you're currently achieving. Where do you go looking for that advantage? Once upon a time in the world of work, it was all about a product advantage or, in the accountancy space, a service level advantage. But at the end of the day, an audit service from one firm is not dissimilar to an audit service from another. ...
Chances are that the vast majority of the people in your firm want to do a good job, whatever their role – accounts, bookkeeping, audit, tax or payroll. They get out of bed every morning to do good work. But to be successful as an accountancy firm, it's more than just the accountancy services that matter. As valuable as these are, what also matters is the care with which the work is done and the care with which a firm looks after and serves clients. In this podcast discussio...
It's a unique experience to have someone who is in the digital space in a deep way coming on the podcast to talk about humanising the numbers. Getting Dan Cockerton onto the Humanise the Numbers podcast has been an ambition of mine for the last 12 months or so – and we've finally managed to make it work. And it was a bit of a relief that, when challenged about digital first versus human first, Dan chose human first. On the podcast, he unpacks and shares his insights of working with the ...
It was exciting to welcome Roger Knecht, the president of Universal Accounting, onto the Humanise the Numbers podcast. And I wasn't expecting to have what essentially turned into a 45-minutes sales training session with Roger. That ultimately is where the value in this podcast actually lies. Roger is so open, so structured, in running through how to construct a sales meeting, a client meeting, with the paymaster general of your firm, your clients – and with your prospects. Roger h...
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