Hello, my name is Gillian Bowen. This is Small Firm, Big Impact.
You don't know everything when you start a business, you don't know everything when you register for the ABN and you're never going to. But you can plan.
You don't know what you don't know. So that checklist is excellent. I agree it can actually highlight some gaps, but that shouldn't necessarily be a reason not to start your practice. But what it does show you is you either need to upskill or you need to get some people around to help you.
It's the podcast giving Chartered Accountants the up to date information they need to do their jobs. Each episode, I share resources, tools and expert advice provided by Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and a range of people across our profession. So get following the pod in your favourite podcast app. Let's start a conversation. Today we have Amanda Gascoigne, FCA and Heather Smith, FCA/ FCCA. The topic: helping you decide whether running an accounting practice is for you. A
bit of a look before you leap. I've chosen those words specifically as CA ANZ and ACCA have created a new resource which is available on our website, and I'll obviously put a link to it in the show notes titled 'Look Before You Leap'. It provides food for thought to help CAs decide if they're going to go out on their own and if it's a good idea for you.
So I'm so glad that Amanda and Heather are the two CA ANZ members, and of course, Heather as well is an ACCA member, and that they're here to help me discuss this as they've been involved in the development of this great document, which you're all going to get a copy of or access to as well. So Amanda and Heather, welcome to Small Firm, Big Impact.
Hi Gill. Thanks for having me.
Thank you so much. Um, Gillian. And, uh, hi, Amanda. Lovely to be here. And hello to everyone listening in.
Fabulous. Okay, so before we dive into the discussion for those members listening along who may not know you already, they will be familiar with my process. I like to get my guests, my experts, to give me a bit of a brief overview of who they are and what they do, so that we know why we've got them on this episode. Heather, why don't you go first?
Thank you so much. I'm a chartered accountant and storyteller, author of ten business books and an accounting technology columnist with Acuity, our magazine, our member magazine, and Accountants Daily. I also produce a podcast and a newsletter and moderator community, all focused on accounting apps. Um, I fell in love with accounting when I was 14 years old, because I realized it was something that I could travel the world with,
and I have, um, lived and worked in four continents now. Um, I originally qualified with ACCA back in '96, returned to Australia in '99. About five years later started a sole trader business around my, um, um, school kids on my kitchen table. While I'm a BAS agent, I steer clear of compliance work and focus on management accounting, and training. Um, so when an MOU was signed between ACCA and CA ANZ I became the first ACCA member to join CA ANZ back
in 2016. So I've taken a bit of a different route to, um, many people.
This is great. I feel, uh, you are definitely the expert we need for this episode. Amanda.
Okay. It's great to be back here. Um, my name is Amanda Gascoigne. I'm an FCA, and this year I'm celebrating 25 years in business. I spent the.
Congratulations.
Thank you. Uh, I spent 18 years as a successful CA practice owner. And since selling the practice seven years ago, I have been dedicating my time and I've had the privilege of coaching, mentoring and consulting to small and solo accounting practice owners. Um, the overarching ethos and philosophy of my work is all around balance. And so I believe that when the practice owners that I work with thrive, they have a positive impact, and it ripples down to the
small business clients that they're working for. So, um, it's all about balance and enjoying what you're doing.
Um, I feel that this has set us up for a very good discussion. So let's get let's get into it. Heather, if I was a CA and I came up to you today and I said, I'm thinking of starting or running an accounting practice, what would you say?
I would say go for it. Um, accountants are superheroes. And to to coin the CA ANZ tagline, they're difference makers. They help businesses survive and thrive. They're very purposeful. And being an accountant is such a rewarding occupation. However, as with any venture, it's essential to plan, prepare and research it thoroughly.
Um, Amanda, what would you add to that?
So I think, you know, starting your own accounting practice, it's not just about the technical skills, because most people have those technical skills, but it's other elements that are really important. And I spoke about in the guide, it's all about, you know, having being entrepreneurial and, you know, and having that resilience to navigate a lot of the challenges that, you know, potentially you come up against. And
those challenges always provide opportunities. So it's not a reason not to go into practice, but it's just that resilience factor that to be able to be prepared as Heather said. But it's really, um, crucial I think, to align, you know, your professional and personal goals. And that's one of the things that I talk to a lot of my clients about is really understanding the vision of what they want for their practice and their life. And, um, look, it's
I wouldn't have changed a thing. I absolutely loved my time being a practice owner, and I love working with practice owners now, so I think it's an incredibly rewarding thing to do. But it's, you know, you have to go in with your eyes wide open. And that's why this resource is so handy. And not just even for people that are starting a practice. I even, um, advocate people to go and have a look at this who might have been in practice for quite some.
There might be things that they need to go hang on because, you know, the world's evolved hasn't it.
It's a bit of a reset. So I'd really encourage all of our listeners, whether they are starting out or thinking of going into practice, to go back and have a look at this resource guide. Particularly, I know at the moment people are feeling very challenged, and they might be even rethinking what they want to stay in and being a practice owner. Go back here and it'll hopefully will bring that enthusiasm back and.
Refocus your thoughts.
Refocus. Yeah.
Heather, we do need to get down into a discussion of where on earth do I start? Um, but I guess to kind of set us up before we get into the that that nitty gritty, if there was perhaps, um, you know, two things that you might want to discuss. I'm going to you can choose if there are two things that are good or two things that are bad. Um, perhaps we just pick two things that you think, um, that are good or bad, that people aren't thinking about that comes with running your own practice?
Well, it is, um, running your own practice is, um, a very rewarding. And you have the flexibility to work anytime and from anywhere. Um, you have to make all the, you get to make all the decisions, which is a good thing. Now, a bad thing is you get to make all the decisions as well. And that can be
quite overwhelming. Um, and it's always as Amanda and I, uh, probably agree on it's very, very important to have your peers and to have a coach like Amanda in your corner, um, to help you make those decisions, have those sounding boards around you. Um, and that's what is wonderful about having a sort of a membership body in that sort of belongingness of peers around you who understand what you're going through.
Mhm. Mhm. Amanda what would you add to that.
So I think the things that are really good like you know I talk about having a fun, rewarding and profitable business. And I think that is the essence of what we do. And you know I know some people might not have that right now but that it is possible. So it's a matter of thinking about, you know, how
can I do that? So they're the excellent things. You know, I know my practices when I had my practice and now in my business, everything that I did in practice, I do now in my business, it does allow that flexibility and freedom. As Heather said, it has allowed me to, um, you know, be financially independent. And I have always been our family's breadwinner. And it's been, you know, a very successful, um, career. And it's actually, you know, provided so well for our family.
So I think they're the really good things. Um, I am going to say about a couple of the challenges, that isolation and that loneliness has been some things that I know a lot of practice owners haven't anticipated. Um, and I know when I was out on my own, you know, in '99, starting a business, we didn't have the networks that we have these days. And that, I think has been something that's actually has come out of Covid that we now don't feel so isolated. So it's there.
And I know some people do feel alone still, but with the communities that we have and Heather's got a wonderful community. I've got a wonderful community that's, you know, no one should ever feel isolated or alone. Now there's always and even CA ANZ, so many resources.
It sounds to me you're saying it's important to lean in.
It's the leaning.
You might be a sole practitioner, or you might be the owner of the so far, the only person that you've hired or something. It doesn't mean you need to be alone. That's the vibe.
I think so. And you know, if you're experiencing something, chances are someone else is. So, you know, even leaning into that vulnerability. But knowing who your people are that you can talk to, whether they are coaches, mentors, or whether they are just your colleagues, there is so much support. So that's one thing that I know it's a challenge, but it also can be the biggest gift. .
Heather let's then drill down into perhaps some of the nitty gritty. What questions should a person ask themselves to see if they're ready to set up their accounting practice, their own accounting practice.
I'm going to encourage people who are listening in to go and have a look at the, um, CA ANZ website, log in and look for the checklist for aspiring practitioners, which is a seven page checklist of everything you can go through and consider, from work life balance to staffing to technology and of course, your own financial situation. It's really comprehensive and you can kind of go through and go
through that and identify where the gaps are. It doesn't cover services you offer, but it does cover that whole concept foundation of actually starting and running a business.
I'll put a link to that in the show notes. It's a really useful resource. And what I found Heather looking at it was um, it's it's kind of making you really think about whether you've thought of everything, sort of. So that sounds I don't know if that's helpful or not, but in the sense that if you've answered no to a few of them, I kind of feel that means that you're not ready. Is that is that the. That's the point of it, isn't it?
It's that. But also identifying the gaps means you've got opportunity to go out and explore and learn them. And I know for myself in going into business. I spent, um, three hours every evening, um, filling in gaps, working out how I could learn more about things. Um, learning excel inside out, upside down, back to front. Um, reading every book on starting a business that I could find at
the library, listening to any podcasts I could find. Um, and that checklist kind of surfaces and identifies areas that you could, uh, uh, further explore. And you don't know everything. When you start a business, you don't know everything when you register for that ABN and you're never going to. So but you can, as I said at the beginning plan. I'm a big believer in a business plan. Um, back in the day, it was paper. It was it was just sort of on a piece of paper type of
business plan. It was 20, 30, 40 pages long. I actually went on and actually wrote a book on how to write a business plan, because I put so much time into my own business plan. But I always, uh, was able to refer back to it, um, as I was going along and having questions, and it was a lot more isolated back then, like 20 odd years ago.
Amanda, on that knowledge gap that Heather's talking about is does someone require is there something formal you need to do to ensure that you are, I guess, "qualified" to start your own business?
I think it's that you don't know what you don't know, so that checklist is excellent. I agree it can actually highlight some gaps, but that shouldn't necessarily be a reason not to start your practice. But what it does show you is you either need to upskill as Heather's discussed, or you need to get some people around to help you.
So that might mean investing in certain things, you know, um, whether that's, that's, you know, policy and procedures, you know, might be just easier to pay someone to help you do some of those things. So if you've identified the gaps, you actually can, you know, it could be just peers. And I think a lot of times, you know, as particularly some of the changes that are coming, you don't need to even deal with those alone. Get a cohort of your peers and, you know, solve some of these
things together. So I think that the gap is, you know, looking at those things and working out, you know, can I do it myself or do I need support? And I think from doing that from day one, and having that mindset is the secret because you don't know it all and you don't need to know it all. And even throughout that practice journey, there will be things that you won't know that'll, oh, I'm not, you know, who do I turn to for this. And it's having that plan.
So I know when I started out, you know mentoring and all that was quite sort of new. But I remember distinctly I had two people that there was not a formal arrangement, but I knew if I got stuck that I would actually go and talk to them. And I didn't abuse that situation. I, you know, when I, I tried to work things out myself, but if I
had a quandary, I would actually go to them. And I think it's actually having that plan as well that you've got someone to go to or if it's even a work type, if you get a bit of a curly question that you're not sure, don't try to navigate it on your own. Perhaps it's a bit of a situation where you're going to refer it to a colleague to do that, and there's no, no shame in doing that. And in fact, I think that's almost like you go to a GP for something and then when it, you know,
you want them to refer you to a specialist. But I find a lot of people in practice that might be the thing that stops them from going into practice because they don't think they know it all. Know that you've got the support and you can ask someone, and I think that's going in with that mindset, you will succeed. You don't have to know everything.
Mhm. Amanda, we've previously done an episode where we've talked about, um, how to set up a good practice, and in particular, we've dived into, um, how to make sure that your client list is what you want and that it works for you, um, in a way that you want. And, um, for those playing along at home who haven't heard that episode, it is fabulous. I'll put it out there. It's a good episode. I'll put a link to that in the
show notes. And, um, as a result, because we've got some great views, we'll come back to you in a second. I thought it would be good to ask Heather here what she might have to add on how you go about finding your clients or how you how you source them, how do you allocate time between clients and then doing all the, the kind of doing side of running a business?
So I encourage you to identify the core services that you're going to offer.
And develop some copy around this. Um, this was always a really successful, um, uh, methodology for me. Develop copy around that and make sure you have it clear across all of your social media channels, especially on LinkedIn. Using mobile phone, record videos of all of the anticipated questions your potential clients are going to ask you and then extract the text. Put that on your website. Um, put
the videos up. It's really good for the algorithms and it's really good for people to see you, um, and connect with you and get to know who you are. So I'm very much, um, I want them to know who you are. Have a really warm sense of who you are before they have a conversation with you. Then, um, I was wondering whether, um, um, the young people coming up would have little black books, but in my day, it was a little black book once.
It's your colourful phone.
I have a little pink book, uh, a little pink book. Pink book in my online community, it's called Amanda's Little Pink Book.
Fabulous. So so so. And that what whatever it is that that connection of all of those networks. The little pink book. The little black book, the fluffy, fluffy pen or the glitter book, be very clear about what your services are. Then reach out to your network and let them know what you're doing, and let them know what services you are offering. However, I strongly advise not working with family and friends. Let them be your advocates. Let them be
clear about how they can advocate for you. But be wary about working for family and friends because that that always seems to lead to challenges.
That's a lovely way to put it.
Good boundaries there. Heather, I think you can potentially like if you don't want any of that conflict or you don't feel like you don't, that's one thing you don't want. Obviously don't do it. But if you do, my advice there would be to treat them just like any other client, so they get charged the same amount as other clients. They get the same, um, you know, level of care. They get the same. Like if your wait time is two weeks for an appointment, they also get two weeks.
And that's one thing that I know I tried to, you know, break the rules a little bit for people, whether they were friends or family, but it actually made it harder for my staff members to, look, is there a different rule for that person? Is it a different price paid? Or if they got a different, you know, they'd say to me, Amanda, you have so many relatives at this time of the year, they come out of the woodwork and that is the truth. So we actually. Yeah, yeah.
It's an "auntie".
That's one thing. It's about setting those boundaries and trying to systemize as much as we do. And that's one of the things that we do need to do in practice not have a rule for this and a rule for that. We talked about boundaries in our last session as well, our podcast we did, but it's about having those systemized
ways which will actually cause less grief. Yes. And if people don't, if they're just coming for the discounted price or they're coming for preferential treatment, they've got it's an opportunity cost for the accounting practice owner. And that's what we can't afford to do.
No. As suspected, um, the three of us have chin wagged right up until the final second. I, uh, had had thought this was going to happen. Um, and and as a result, there's no way that we were ever going to be able to discuss everything that was on my list. We've just touched the edges. And look, if you enjoyed this episode, let us know, because we can do another one of a similar vein, like which we can put out again in a couple of weeks, which just value adds to what we've what we've done here.
We'll just call it part two or something. But um, obviously I'll put a link to, um, the resource in itself, which is worth reading. Um, look before you leap and the checklist that, um, Amanda and Heather have been talking about, it's it's really worth reading. And there's some great, um, you know, anecdotes as well from, uh, the, the experts that have helped put together the resource that are worth reading.
It's always good to get a viewpoint from someone who's done it and then to get their their, their kind of use, their vibes as a bit of an action list. Before we go, let's see if we can wrap up with a final thought from the both of you. Um, Heather, why don't you go first?
I would encourage anyone who's listening in to connect with Amanda Gascoigne or I on LinkedIn, and if you are in need of peers, put your hand up and join the CA ANZ Facebook groups which have their own individual Facebook groups for each state. Put your hand up. There's people out there to connect with. But if you do have a question, I'm sure between both of us we can point you in the right direction if you're not finding it elsewhere.
Agreed, Amanda.
Thanks, Heather. Uh, I think the biggest thing that we're seeing, particularly at the moment, is, uh, the managing of stress, burnout and overwhelm. So part of that is actually really thinking about that work life balance. Like, how can we achieve that? Because what is the use of, you know, looking after all of our clients and doing an amazing job, but us feeling stressed and we're actually, you know, leaving ourselves short for the people you know, that mean the
most to us, our family and ourselves. So I think really looking at and setting up your business that you are looking at the financial aspects that as you grow, that you can grow sustainably and you are able to have enough money, you're pricing in a way that you can actually bring on more staff and invest in technology. But I think the biggest thing is about that work life balance, because that's what one of the reasons we go into business for ourselves the freedom, the flexibility, the money.
And I see a lot of people coming to me because they've lost, you know, lost their way a little bit. And the work life balance is the first thing that goes. Now it's possible to get it back, but it does require those boundaries that we talked about. And, you know, and it really is. You've got to be on purpose. You've got to be thinking about that as you're making those decisions and as you're, you know, having the ideal clients and, and that sort of thing. So I feel
like that's got to be something. And we also, that's our clients want that as well. Um, that's so we really need to be really more mindful of that. And we can help our entrepreneurial small business clients achieve that as well. And there's that ripple effect.
I agree. Look, that is all we have time for. Have you checked out the podcast page on the CA ANZ website? There's plenty of great content, experts, interviews and resources tailored to you. I will put a link to it in the show notes so it's easy to find. And of course you'll see a link to the podcast in the newsletters you receive from CA ANZ and on our social media channels. I'm also going to put a link to
the new Smaller Practices Resource Centre. If you haven't checked that out already, I strongly encourage you to head there to have a look, and if you want to get in touch with the podcast, email us podcast@charteredaccountantsanz.com and follow the pod in your favourite podcast app. Let's start a conversation. Thank you Heather Smith and Amanda Gascoigne for being my guests, my experts on Small Firm, Big Impact.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Bye bye.