Probably just maintaining the focus more. It's all stuff I know we should be doing, it’s all stuff that I like doing, but the day-to-day gets in the way doesn’t it, the phone rings or you get an email and you run off and sort everybody else’s business out before you think about your own. So that’s probably the discipline to throw it back and think about the business model and what we are going to do with it.

Really good, we get a lot of value from the academy itself, I really like the fact that it’s three times a year ‘cause it gives us some time in-between to just try and concentrate on doing what you’ve told us and then, you know, the interim sessions are good ‘cause it gives a bit of motivation, so yeah, really good.

Having someone come to the practice and with the view to keep it short and sweet and just focus on accountability that really does make a difference actually because you do feel accountable, and it gives you a focus in both your actions and time. Yeah, that really makes a difference.

Delegation, delegation, delegation, I’d say you can’t do it all yourself, the biggest learning I had was actually at the April seminar which we had, and that was about the tax returns, and those tax returns I was able to listen, go back to the office and implement them really, but not implement them myself, but it was delegate it. And rather than me setting the goals and setting the targets, I was able to delegate that to George and she has been fabulous, absolutely fabulous. Already after three months we’ve hit 25% of our tax returns, whereas before it was more like 5%, so we’ve got more of a smoother line going across rather than having that curve at the end of the year, we did 400 tax returns in January last year, hopefully this year we’re going to be coming on a much smoother line, and what we’ve also found is being able to sit down with those people which are involved and talk to them and say, “What can you do in a day, how much…” and giving it back to them then tell us, rather than us tell them. And the team have been, have actually stepped up and actually getting more done and they seem to be a lot happier ‘cause they can see what’s going on, so it’s been a really really good experience for us so far.

It’s worked extremely well.

The main thing to start with was three tier pricing which that was an eye-opener, giving options, etc, we were probably early adopters in that we just went back and did it because we just got it day one, and that was revolutionary in terms of getting our prices up, but also more importantly from what we saw was clients were making the choice, and you know, what Paul says, if they have a choice they can go to you or someone else, so they can choose, they can give them a choice and go to you or go to you or go to you, there’s three different levels. So that that really did work very well for us.

I think the biggest learning point we’ve taken so far is really don’t pre-judge your clients, believe in yourself, believe in your product, your service, believe in your value, and don’t sort of think you can’t do that, client won’t like it.

I think the AGA has been excellent for our firm, it took a while to get off the ground, to actually get buy-in from the whole team, and what have you, it started off with me going along, the implementation process afterwards was tortuous, but really since we’ve got real team involvement in the process it’s really started to gain momentum.

We’ve found the AGA great, great fun to, you know, what are we, two, nearly three years of the way through. It’s been a good learning exercise for the three of us, Jonathan myself and Ian, good opportunities to get away, get together, and the networking side of it in terms of chatting to like minded firms, sometimes you learn something new, but sometimes it’s just about also knowing that other people as going through the same thing as you’re going through, you know, like a reassurance factor. As well as the new learning that obviously it’s brought in so makes you stop and think different about the way you’re doing things, what should we be doing. Paul’s a great person to learn from and listen to, he’s never boring, he really is a… we always look forward to the next one.

It really does help, because quite often you go to things like there’s… you have a good day, you’re full of ideas and then you get back into the workplace and you absolutely forget everything because you’re back into the swing of the daily nitty-gritty and doing the data and stuff, so that really brings it back to mind when we’ve got tasks to do and things that we need to put in place before you come, whoever comes. So it’s essential to the whole programme.

You know, quite a lot really because even when you go to a workshop day where, you’ve got these really inspirational speakers and you sit there and you think, oh, wow, if they can do it we can do it and then you, you sit in the car driving back and you think, oh, yeah, I’m going to do this, this, this and that. And actually you open your emails the next day and you just continue plodding along doing the same thing that you were doing before you know, you actually do need someone coming in and saying, “Well hold on a minute, you’ve hit another of your targets, or you’ve hit one out of five,” and if you keep having someone banging on at you I suppose it’s the same really with your clients, yeah, you know, if you tell your client to keep changing things, actually if you tell them once they’re not going to do it and you tell them ten times and that they’re going to so, but yeah, it’s the same sort of thing with this.

I think the best thing we’ve done so far is having the whiteboards in each of our offices so that we’re tracking what, be it turnover, be it number of meetings, so that’s the key.

I think when you came down last time we spoke about the BOPP, you know, we did the BOPP, we came away from the bot, we’re now putting the BOPP back in place and those regular meetings are the driver for that and for what we’re obviously trying to achieve.

The key problem that we have had with implementing change was following it up, getting back to the office.Like everybody we’re very much, you know, a small firm, small firm mentality and you get back to the office, you’ve got a pile of emails, a pile of post to deal with, and what have you, and it slips, and before you know it you haven’t got that focus. Having Douglas come on site last time I think we really got alot out of that in terms of actually directing and keeping our attention on the things that need to change. Without that accountability process there is no development and it will always drift.

The biggest impact for us so far has been the support we've had for implementation of three tier pricing, so it’s taken us ages to put it properly in place, I started off in two tiers at the beginning, ‘cause I wanted to try it but I was a bit scared of doing it the whole way, so we kind of half did it but now we’ve got it and we do it for all new clients, so that is really really big. And you find everyone pays more than you expect they would want to.

It’s worked very well from our firm point of view ‘cause we knew we wanted to make changes for MTD particularly, and we knew that there were a lot of old-fashioned things we were doing, paper files, etc, we needed to change, and so we needed to change, we needed the driver to help us change.

So that as the reasoning behind joining the Accountants Growth Academy last year.

I would say it is to put in place areas where you just need to focus on and then to focus on them. I think it's supported by ties in nicely with the accountability visits. In other words just make sure you’re clear on what you’re focusing on and then focus on it!

I think it’s for us as business … and we’re still, if I’m honest, struggling to implement it properly, but the three tier pricing. You know, we realised quite early on that we’re leaving money on the table, you know, we’re not developing… a) we’re not giving the client what they want necessarily which is choice and b) sometimes we’re doing stuff for clients and we’re not charging for it. So basically we’re not earning as much as we can out of those clients. As I say we’re struggling to implement it properly, but it’s the biggest thing that I’ve learnt, still the biggest thing where we can build on it as a business as well.

It’s working really well for us, it’s made us very focused on what we’re doing, it’s helped us to focus the team, and develop the team, and we can see big changes in our firm coming out.

It's quite difficult to pick one single thing because I think it’s a gradual culture shift, I think it’s that, I think if anything I suppose we were already aware. The last two sessions from a Making Tax Digital point of view have been a key factor in sort of driving us forward and getting us to actually do something practical on it. I think we probably will look back in the future and maybe able to pinpoint specific points that have actually been key to it, but at the moment it's made up of lots of intertwined compenents that are all moving us forward.

I think the accountability visit actually has pushed it to another level so I think that’s really needed and really a key part of the whole programme.

The accountability visits with Douglas are really great, because obviously you come away with lots of ideas, but it makes you focus on, okay, what am I going to do between now and when the meeting is or the phone call is, it kind of forces you to get on with it. Stop and think about it, and then actually implement one, two or three of the things you’ve learnt during the session. So I think without it you wouldn’t think about it again till you were just coming to the next one, yeah so they are really important.

I can’t tell you what a difference actually getting the follow up meetings has made. It has certainly spurred us into action and made me see where we were holding up progress by keeping all of the responsibility to ourselves and not giving it to the whole team.

I am looking forward to making good use of the extra time this should free up for me!

Immense value to the process, we really like the accountability visits, so for example Douglas coming down recently it’s given us a kick up the backside, what haven’t we been doing, actually we really should do that because of those reasons, and it just reinforces what Paul’s told us, so whilst we only get three visits a year with Paul, seeing Douglas in between, you know, really makes us refocus and think let’s get back to the drawing boards, why haven’t we picked up on that, and it’s a sharp reminder and that’s really really important. It absolutely keeps us moving forward and reduces the distraction of the day to day stuff.

I think the biggest beneefit of the accountability is being made accountable for your own actions, so when you’re a boss, a partner, who are you actually accountable to? I’ve used coaches in the past and but these visits from Douglas are more specific, not necessarily as a coach, but what I find is we’ve actually got a little bit more input from the Academy team and we’re getting now to see you or Paul once every six weeks, so it’s making us aware, right, we’ve got to make sure that’s done, make sure that’s done, make sure that’s done, and it’s not too much and it’s not too little, so for us it’s perfect. The problem we’ve got being a legacy firm, yeah, I’m third generation, that’s been a huge curved ball for us really, especially re-educating clients who have always been used to things a different way so it’s been good for that.

I think the biggest learning point for ourselves has been to grow, we need to develop our team, we cannot do everything ourselves, and we’ve come from a small practice that’s growing year-on-year, but since we have started the Accountants Growth Academy we’ve realised we need to get good team members in, get them trained, get them empowered to do the job and that’s the only way we can grow and we can keep moving the firm on, and it’s been better for everybody, including ourselves.

It’s working really well, yeah. I think the main point is that all the partners in the firm would generally in the past just be getting on with their clients in their little pockets and we weren't discussing where we're going. We've identified key points that you need to actually track for the firm, some KPIs to keep the overall business moving forward.

It’s good, I mean that it feels like it’s a bit more joined up now with the full work and the accountability visits. With Douglas visiting it's been possible to be more structured. Off the back of the last visit that we had with you we’ve taken steps, we’ve redone the website, we’ve taken on a new member of staff, we’ve done those sorts of bits and pieces.

Absolutely fabulously, really really well. Especially I had a bit of a kick in April when we first came, well when we first came and we met in Solihull and it was a little bit of an eye-opening experience for me, it’s all of a sudden realising Making Tax Digital is coming along, although we know about it the actual impact it’s going to have on the firm is going to be huge, and that’s just progressed and progressed, and we need to be monitored all the time, so I found it really really good, really good, yeah.

I think it is about having boldness on pricing really I think, because especially me, I’m quite a young partner and it's very easy for me to slip into taking a client no matter what for as lower price to get the client and you can end up, you know, completely under-pricing your services and then struggling for years to come. So I think, you know, being bold, having the right clients at the right prices means that, you know, not only are you giving a better service, but also, you know, you’ve got that profitability across all the parts of the business.

Yeah, it’s worked well, it’s helped us highlight a lot of issues that we knew we had but we, you know, it’s helped us focus on them to try and get solutions too.