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Navigating price increases – how much?
Way back in the 1970s when there were Oil Shocks One and Two the inflation genie got out of the bottle and started to run wild with price increases everywhere. It was many years before it was corralled. The 70s were the years of Current Cost Accounting – the attempt to value assets and liabilities…
Read MoreSoft Skills – the Future for Successful Accountants
If you have been working for several years in the accounting industry or maybe just a few, you would have noticed that successful team members know more than technical accounting skills. They know how to manage a meeting, put clients at ease, deal with difficult clients and scenarios, persuade and negotiate, and make themselves known…
Read MoreFinding The Right Balance
This month we are looking at something a bit different. I have again asked my daughter Jessica (Jess) Holton, a 34-year-old skilled graduate journalist working in digital media to comment on the work-life balance of the new generation of employees, particularly in the accounting industry and how to manage them. Here are some of Jess’s…
Read MoreHow to Create Sustainable Opportunities
Accountants are fortunate (although not all may agree). Legislation dictates the annual demand for accounting services. This, along with the inconvenience of moving accountants, has provided some degree of disincentive for clients to shift from their incumbent accountant. However, the impact of this disincentive is diminishing. With compliance services increasingly commoditised, a reduced fee is…
Read MoreMental Health Training for Accountants
This month something a bit different. I have asked Peter Annis-Brown of Manage Health to provide his views on the mental health of the professional services industry. Peter is a qualified Mental Health Educator and Master Mental Health 1st Aid instructor who conducts workshops, training, and courses throughout Australia to leaders, businesses and organisations looking…
Read MoreLeadership – Unleashing the Key to your Career Superpower
As an ambitious professional, you’re on the lookout for opportunities to step up and stand out. Bigger clients. More complex work. Sitting in the big meetings. Conversations with the senior practitioner. Leadership is one factor that you must address to be truly successful. It’s something that not every finance professional gets right and therefore when…
Read MoreHow’s that capacity plan going?
As many readers may be aware, I have long advocated that every firm needs a production manager. Part of that job is to ensure that the business has sufficient capacity to get the work done and develop new work. In these resource constrained times, this is no easy challenge. While, before COVID, there were still…
Read MoreConnecting the Team with Humour
Videoconferencing or virtual solutions like Webex, Go to Meeting and Zoom and more recently Teams have been around for many years. Until COVID-19, though, you would find that many if not most people needing to attend a meeting remotely would be calling from a conference room full of their teammates. Today, we are often holding…
Read MoreStrategies for Accounting Practice Leadership
Wikipedia defines leadership as “the ability of an individual or organisation to lead or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organisations through a process of social influence in which a person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task”. Great leaders display outstanding performance in the practice management…
Read MoreOpening up new doors in your career
With the new year here it’s time to move forward, look at things differently and perhaps even head down a new path in your firm. Moving on and hopefully away from COVID-19 is the season of new opportunity, so now is the time to refresh your workplace habits to create your own “new beginning.” Remember,…
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