Posted by Cedric Joshua Martinez
Feb 20, 2020
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When you are operating your own accounting practice, strategy and planning are crucial in ensuring that your corporate accounting firm can operate without any hiccups. Without a strategy, it would be like leaving the performance of your company to chance. This will not only cause unbelievable amounts of stress (unless you like to worry and fret every night), but also lead to the eventual failure of your business.
However, strategy isn’t as simple as writing down a to-do list and posting it on a bulletin board at your office. There are strategies that fail and will lead you farther away from your goals. To prepare for business growth, the following characteristics have to be present in your company.
Leadership
There’s no doubt that you have piles of work to get through, but you should always remember that your role as a firm owner must be your top priority. You need to pay attention to your business to get a clear picture on how it should be run. It would be like going up to a random stranger and knowing exactly what that they need—basically chances so low that even gamblers would shy away from.
Leaders also drive performance through evaluations and example. Your actions influence the working etiquette of your employees, whether they are conscious of this change or not. Of course, this means that you could potentially affect it negatively, so always stay aware.
Related: Keep in Mind These 5 Things During Strategic Decision Making
Skills Development
You won’t reach new heights if you or those that work for you don’t know how to climb in the first place. You need space in your strategy for skills training and education. If you simply let them learn on their own, mistakes and clashes between staff are more likely to occur. There’s always room for improvement, so don’t be complacent and lazy if you want to grow.
Working Environment
Success shows itself in your office environment. While physical cleanliness and organisation do play a role in your company’s well-being, the biggest part of this is your team’s cohesion with each other and their management. With this, you are able to retain the best talent through lower turnover rates, and have them work together in camaraderie. You’ve already got the best skills around - imagine what you could accomplish with them working together.
Client Service and Satisfaction
The success of your accounting firm plan lies in keeping your clients satisfied. Clients and partners provide you with two resources essential for growth: revenue and renown. Renown is gained through recommendations, where they spread news of your accounting firm through their network. This kind of exposure will lead you to more clients, promising talent, and other benefits. Marketing your accounting firm can be as easy as just doing your job exceptionally well and making it obvious to your clients.
Execution
No matter how well thought out your plan may be, it will be nothing more than a piece of paper (or bytes of data if you used a computer) if you don’t execute your strategy properly. Make sure that everyone is clear on what they need to know, and that includes you, too. Are your goals clear and measurable? Do you know the concrete actions to reach them? If you don’t have a crystal clear image yourself, you can’t possibly expect your employees to.
Read Next: The Backbone of a Corporation: Strategic Financial Management
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First published on 16 February 2017; Updated on 20 February 2020
