In its simpliest form it means a plan for your firm, When you know where you want to go you can work on how to get there.
Some plan for 2 years, 3 years, 5 years, but if you have never made a strategic plan for your firm before you might focus on the next 6 months.
Defining where you want to get to is relatively easy, carrying it out is the challenging part and there are lots of elements to strategic planning in your firm - it's a big subject.
In the blogs below we tackle many of the elements of why a strategic plan matters, what the steps are and what the matters most, including:
Strategic planning does not need to be difficult, even if you have never thought about the strategic future of your accountancy firm before. All we are really talking about is a plan – a planned direction of travel. It’s like Satnav for your firm. And it can be for 1 year, 3 years or even 5 years
Read MoreLet’s be honest: accounting isn’t just about tax returns, payroll, and management accounts. Yes, those things matter, but they’re not why your firm exists. They’re not what gets you or your team out of bed in the morning, and they’re certainly not what sets your firm apart from the one down the road. So here’s the real
Read MoreIn our fast-paced world, accountancy firms face increasing pressure to deliver more value, build stronger teams, and stand out from the crowd. But amidst the demands of daily operations, one important question often goes unanswered: Where are you heading, and is your team coming with you? Strategic planning isn’t just a ‘nice to have.’ It’s the foundation of
Read MoreBecause we are so entrenched and attached to our daily routines both in our personal and professional lives it can be hard to put real habit change into effect. It’s easy to make a temporary change but then over time slip back to the same old routine. But the truth is your firm will not grow or
Read MoreStrategy – you have heard the word bandied about in many business scenarios, including your own firm. But what does strategy mean? The dictionary definition states: “a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim”. or “the art of planning and directing overall military operations and movements in a war or battle”. A well-outlined business strategy is
Read MoreStrategy – you have probably heard this word bandied about in many business scenarios, including your own. But what does strategy actually mean? The dictionary defines strategy as: “a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim” or “the art of planning and directing overall military operations and movements in a war or battle” Your accountancy firm,
Read MoreTaking yourself out of the day-to-day running of your firm for even a short period of time to focus on your future strategic objectives can sometimes seem like a dream and not reality. You are likely too busy fire-fighting – dealing with your team and client deadlines to even think about the important strategic priorities of
Read MoreThe future of your firm relies heavily on the commitment and dedication of your team. If they are unhappy in their work, your firm will underperform. Have you ever stopped to address this issue? The performance of your team is linked to the overall health of your firm – it is intrinsic to your future – so surely
Read MoreAs a business manager or business leader, you guide your firm every day, every week, every month. What would you say when asked about the purpose of your firm?You might say:To ensure the team are happyTo deliver to our customers on timeTo deal with customer complaints efficientlyTo have a quick turnaround of ordersTo make a profitAll
Read MoreIn his book ‘The Advantage – Why Organisational Health Trumps Everything Else’, Patrick Lencioni states:More than anything else, values are critical because they define your business’s personality. If I asked you what the personality of your firm was, what would be your response? He also states that with the right values in place you will attract the
Read MoreLate in the 1990s, 17 different search engines were fighting to dominate the web. Then along came Number 18 – Google. Normally someone arriving so late to the party would not stand a chance, especially having given all the others time to establish themselves. So how did Google race ahead, with repeated annual growth and being rated as
Read MoreAn effective business strategy does not simply define the goals of your firm. Real strategic change comes from identifying the biggest challenges for your firm and then choosing to do something about them. This may mean ignoring some of the other things you would like to do within your firm. It can be tough, especially if some
Read MoreRunning your firm is challenging. You and your team work very hard just to survive and to make sure that your firm remains profitable and has a future.It goes without saying that your firm cannot exist without making money – but is the money the sole reason for its existence?If the purpose of your firm
Read MoreIt’s tempting to throw your hands up in despair when unexpected problems occur in your firm. It’s tempting to panic, stutter and stall when things happen out of your control that cause chaos. Running your firm is stressful – you have commitments – deadlines to meet, suppliers to pay, clients to satisfy, staff who rely on you
Read MoreWhen you started your firm, you’ll have had many ideas about the direction in which you wanted it to go and what you wanted to achieve. You had dreams, ideas, goals and objectives. In good times and bad, setting goals for your firm is important. But the reality is that if you just make a list of
Read MoreRecent advances in the study of the brain have shown the brain to be far more elastic that we previously thought. Research shows that every time you are pushed out of your comfort zone to learn something new, complicated, difficult and right at the edge of your learning capacity the neurons in your brain form stronger,
Read MoreSome business owners fall into the trap of thinking that strategy is a wish list of things they would like to do. For example: grow by 10%, recruit more staff, open another office, upgrade the computer system. This is not good strategy – this is a wish list. Good strategy is about identifying the biggest and most
Read MoreManaging the complexities that come with running an accountancy firm isn’t easy and made even harder if you are constantly lurching from good times to bad times. Some people would describe this way of working as being on a rollercoaster and would give anything to be able to get off! We all want to sail a steady
Read MoreWe all manage change in our personal lives – leaving home, getting married, buying a house, moving jobs… these are all completely normal changes, although some of them are large and can be unpredictable. Our job is to manage these changes and the transition from something old to something new as smoothly and as positively as
Read MoreYou know that the success of your accountancy firm comes from your ability to be able to grow, develop and move with the times, especially in times of great challenge. External circumstances and an unpredictable environment will often force great changes to happen in order for your firm to survive. And how has your mindset and the
Read MoreDo you really want your firm’s mission-critical tasks to happen without a checklist? Even the cleverest people use a checklist… A renowned surgeon was asked by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to come up with an initiative to help save lives in operating theatres all over the world. After looking at a variety of alternatives, a simple
Read MoreWhether you sell complex solutions or simple products and services, one thing is clear, buyers are more informed than ever before. With the information they can gather online, including all the good, the bad and the ugly from social media, most buyers can determine what they want and who they want to buy from, sometimes without
Read MoreIf a 3-year-old can ask an obvious question, then can’t we all ask great questions? On a sunny winter’s day in 1943 Jennifer (3-years old) asked her Dad a question. Edwin Land had just taken Jennifer’s picture with his favourite camera when she piped up: “Why can’t I see the picture you’ve taken right now?” Like most 3-year-olds
Read More‘Deep practice’ (training intensely and right at the edge of one’s capability) in sport is expected for the athlete to be the best they can possibly be. However, in the world of business the commitment to training people using ‘deep practice’ is often avoided as it is viewed as costly both in terms of time and
Read MoreHere’s a great story about change involving a man called Jerry Sternin, the principles of which can be applied to your accountancy firm… Jerry arrived in Vietnam in 1991 with his young family. His remit from ‘Save the Children Fund’ was to transform the lives of millions of severely malnourished children living there. Jerry had very little
Read MoreYou know your firm’s performance will improve when the skills, knowledge and abilities of your people improves. And if, as a partner or senior manager, you’re convinced about the value of a structured appraisal process to your firm, then you must get wholeheartedly involved in every review until they become part of the culture of your
Read MoreYou, me, everybody would prefer not to follow a checklist, yet they keep us alive in many walks of life. Checklists can keep your accountancy firm alive too and help it thrive. The importance of using a checklist was proved in the slums of Karachi, Pakistan in the 1990s. All the local water sources were contaminated with sewage.
Read MoreWhether you like Ed Sheeran’s music or not, you will have heard of him. He is, without doubt, one of the biggest selling artists of all time. But, this success has not happened overnight, he is not a product of a music mogul or a television programme, he is a product of his own consistent, daily
Read MoreComplex problems cannot be solved by simple answers. “The most important capacity we possess is our ability to influence ourselves and others. Learn to see every important challenge you face as an influence challenge”.
Read MoreFrom a very early age questions form a part of our everyday life… Children ask a multitude of seemingly irrelevant and repetitive questions, mostly starting with the word ‘why?’. This is how they learn, work out the world and grow. As adults those skills become more refined, the questions become more targeted and outcome driven. The decisions that people
Read MoreRunning a firm is hard, you have days when you have no time to yourself and if you do find some time, you are fatigued by the sheer effort of running your firm… However, if you want to achieve the ultimate goal – your ‘Big Hairy Audacious Goal’ (BHAG) – for your firm, you must address
Read MoreLike every business owner, you probably have doubts, doubts that you are:taking your firm in the right directionrecruiting the right peopleselling the right products and services at the right priceDo you allow these doubts to hold you back? Or do you push through them and make the necessary decisions without being afraid of failure? Allowing doubts
Read MoreWhether your firm is large or small, there are jobs that need doing every single day, and the list is almost endless. The flow of these jobs is like a river – it never stops. But if all you ever do is the day-to-day work, every day, all you’ll ever get is more of the same
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