Strategy Series Archives - humanisethenumbers.online

Episode 117: Kat Wellum-Kent of Fractional Finance

Paul Shrimpling — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 13:51:33 +0000

What must it feel like to leave a promising, high-flying career with a leading firm and start up your own firm – to hand your notice in and, six months later, kick-start your accountancy firm with one client?
Well, that's exactly what Kat Wellum-Kent has done. She set up Fractional Finance and has grown that to a business with a fairly clear vision of building a £5 million turnover business in just five years. She already has clients paying her, yes, £400 a month, but also clients paying her £7500 a month.
On this podcast, you'll hear Kat share her insights around fairness for the team and the vision based around how this will play out for her clients and the capital value that she's going to help them grow. She shares the importance of building a vision board and having good reasons for why you're doing what you're doing, so that in those moments where it gets tough, you can have a quick check-in on your vision board and say, yeah, I'm on the right path.
Why not go to this podcast discussion with Kat Wellum-Kent to hear those deep insights and see how they might apply to your established firm, or your startup firm, or the firm that you've got in your mind's eye that you're looking to set up in the not-too-distant future. I'm certain you'll get great value and enjoy the discussion we have together.

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Episode 104: Jessica Pillow, Founder and MD of Pillow May Accountancy

Paul Shrimpling — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 15:39:02 +0000

Do you know that feeling you get when you meet someone who's excited about, and who clearly loves, what they're doing, someone who is completely engaged as a leader in running their accounting firm? That joy and enthusiasm is infectious!
In this podcast discussion with Jessica Pillow of Pillow May Accountancy, you'll hopefully experience what I did when talking with Jessica – a sense that she loves what she's doing and loves how her firm works, delivering exactly what she wants from leading and running an accountancy business.
Now don't get me wrong – Jessica shares some really powerful insights around KPIs, around core purpose and around how that core purpose works for her clients, her team and herself in a deep way.
There's something of real value in this podcast discussion. But as much as anything, I hope you get what I got, which was a sense of joy and excitement in talking with someone who loves what they're doing, on a daily basis.
I hope you enjoy this podcast as much as I certainly did. You can find it at humanisethenumbers.online, or you can go to your favourite podcast platform and look out for Jessica Pillow.
Please scroll down this episode page for the contact information for Jessica and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.

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Episode 99: Subarna Banerjee, Managing Partner at UHY Hacker Young

Paul Shrimpling — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 11:35:22 +0000

It's easy for us to assume you want a more successful firm. You also probably want a more enjoyable place to work. I guess the big question is, which comes first – a more enjoyable firm or a more successful, more profitable firm?
On this Humanise The Numbers podcast with the Managing Partner of UHY Hacker Young in London and Nottingham, Subarna Banerjee, you'll hear Subarna dive deep into his team-first approach – an approach that's led to the commercial results that they've enjoyed in recent times. You’ll also hear about his deep commitment to a core purpose and a set of values that aren't just corporate wall art, aren't just corporate BS, but real, alive and making a difference for his team and, at the same time, informing their decisions around their customers.
If you're seeking out ways and means of building a more successful firm, consider checking out what Subarna has to say about a team-first approach, as opposed to one that is commercial-first, and see how, if you do that in an authentic way, you can build a more successful firm.
Please go to www.humanisethenumbers.online or go to your favourite podcast platform and seek out the Humanise the Numbers podcast with Subarna Banerjee. I look forward to seeing you there.
Scroll down this episode page for the contact information for Subarna and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.

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Episode 98: Ashley Leeds, coach, trainer, mentor and author

Paul Shrimpling — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 11:26:58 +0000

When you start to unpack the value and the importance of your team being connected with the vision and the future goals of your business, you know you're in a position to acquire some insight and to deliver actions and decisions that will support the future success of your firm.
On this podcast discussion with Ashley Leeds, a man with 16 years’ experience in working with accounting firms – from QuickBooks to Digita and in other organisations – as well as from the perspective of his work in coaching, we unpack exactly that.
How do we better connect our team to the goals and vision of the business? How do we better connect our team to what matters to them as well, their personal goals? And what do we do to better tap into deeper and stronger levels of motivation, drive and enthusiasm, giving our team members the responsibility to help us develop the business as well?
Please go to www.humanisethenumbers.online or go to your favourite podcast platform and seek out Ashley Leeds on the Humanise The Numbers podcast. I look forward to seeing you there.
Scroll down this episode page for the contact information for Ashley and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.

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Episode 95: Christine Nicholson, Business Mentor and Exit Planner

Paul Shrimpling — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 13:42:28 +0000

One of the deepest, most valuable, conversations you can have with your business owner/business leader clients is in regard to the future of the business without them. It's about exit planning and succession, about preparing the business for their exit, whether it's an internal or external sale, and about whether the management team will continue in their footsteps.
But how do you have those conversations? What questions do you ask? On what topics do you want to zero in and focus so that your clients get real value from that conversation?
On this humanisethenumbers.online podcast discussion with Christine Nicholson, she unpacks her 30 years of experience, allowing you to take away a number of key insights that will stimulate great conversations with your clients, as well as within your own firm, so that you can prepare your accountancy firm for a better future without you as a manager and leader.
So please go to humanisethenumbers.online or go to your favourite podcast platform and look out for the podcast discussion with Christine Nicholson. I look forward to seeing you there.
Scroll down this episode page for the contact information for Christine and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.

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Episode 90: Robert Fiford, MD at djca Accountants

Paul Shrimpling — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 10:16:00 +0000

It can't be easy to transform an accountancy firm from one that's charging clients about £200 a month to one that's charging clients in excess of £1000 a month.
It can't be easy to grow from scratch an offshoring team out in the Philippines – from zero to ten in just twelve months.
And it can't be easy to approach every one of your 30 team members across two locations and ensure that every one of them gets what they want out of working in your practice, on a really personal level.
That's what Robert Fiford of DJCA has done and, in this Humanise The Numbers podcast, he shares how he's done it. I found this discussion wide-ranging, only because Robert has so many insights to share.
I hope you enjoy this discussion as much as I did and I hope you can take away one, two, three, or possibly even six or seven, high-value elements of this podcast. Please go to www.humanisethenumbers.online or to your favourite podcast platform. I'll see you there.
Scroll down this episode page for the contact information for Robert and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.

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Episode 86: Alastair Barlow, flinder CEO and co-founder

Paul Shrimpling — Thu, 27 Jul 2023 12:33:17 +0000

What does it take to grow an accounting business from its initial two founders to 40 people in five years? Great question.
What does it take to grow an accounting business which generates average fees per client of £30,000? Another great question.
What does it take to grow an accountancy business where its people absolutely love working and where the clients respect and love the work that the firm's doing for them?
I had the great privilege of spending an hour on a podcast discussion with Alastair Barlow, co-founder of flinder. Alastair unpacked many things, but he talked specifically about the determination to systematise the business so that it's not reliant on Alastair and it's not reliant on his co-founder, Luke.
And standards – the power and the importance of standards and expectations show up big time in this discussion. Last but not least, the determination to uphold those standards across the firm comes through really strongly.
I hope you take time out to listen to this profoundly valuable conversation with Alastair and that you enjoy it as much as I did.

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Episode 84: Will Farnell, Accountancy Firm Owner, Author, Speaker and Mentor

Paul Shrimpling — Fri, 23 Jun 2023 15:32:00 +0000

It's not every day that you get to have a deep and valuable conversation with someone who's deliberately, consciously, ambitiously looking to shift the profession towards the place it used to hold in the hearts and minds of its clients.
And that's why I felt so excited, so privileged, to be able to spend some time with Will Farnell on the Humanise The Numbers podcast, talking with Will about the insights he has captured in his book, The Human Firm.
Will is very open, very keen to be clear regarding his first book, The Digital Firm, which was about his experiences around how he got his firm to a place where they were the first 100% cloud-based accounting firm, and how those insights have driven him to realise that it's more about the humanity within the firm, around your clients and your team, that matters.
This is why I was so enamoured and so up for a conversation with Will, where he shares deep and meaningful insights about his progression from an offline to a completely cloud-based firm by 2009, and how those experiences have continued to influence his progression towards being a firm (of 75 people) that's committed to the humanity of what's going on in his business, from his team's perspective and from his clients’ perspective.
I hope you'll join Will and I on this humanise the numbers podcast. You can go to Spotify or Apple or your favourite podcast platform if you wish, but please take time out and have a listen to Will Farnell. I'm sure you'll get some real value from it.

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Episode 82: Des O’Neill of The CPD Store

Paul Shrimpling — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 15:09:39 +0000

How good are you and your leadership team, and your managers generally, at holding people to account for their behaviour and their results?
It's one of the sticky, challenging, thorny aspects of leading and managing people, leading and managing accountancy firms. In this podcast discussion with Des O'Neill of the CPD Store, you'll hear Des and I unpack the detail behind determining the boundaries you should put in place and how you do that, as well as what standards you set, minimum and aspirational, in order to make expectations clearer, so that accountability is easier?
And that's only one of many subjects Des and I touch on in and around the ‘humanise the numbers’ topic – humanising for the team, humanising for your clients – so that you are certain to get something of real value that you can directly apply to your firm, with your team and with your clients.
I hope you enjoy this discussion with Des O'Neill as much as I did.
Please scroll down the episode page for the contact information for Des and additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.

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Episode 80: Alexandra Bond Burnett, Leadership Brand Strategist

Paul Shrimpling — Thu, 25 May 2023 14:58:00 +0000

One of the challenges or, arguably, one of the opportunities facing your firm, facing the profession, is the march of technology.
But more importantly, as the technology takes over more of the technical work of accountancy and bookkeeping, there’s a real need to invest more time, more energy, more money, even, in the development of human skills, the skills that help you work better together as a team and that enable you to work better with your clients.
And with that in mind, it made sense to invite Alexandra Bond Burnett onto the humanisethenumbers.online podcast, so that we could tap into Alexandra’s experience, knowledge and insight from her work at drama school, her work in the finance world and her work as a coach, trainer and speaker for professional service firms. We discuss what it means to look at precision in a different way and the challenges that brings to accountants who want to get everything right in a world of ambiguity around the people skills, the client skills.
So, if you want to improve your firm’s capabilities, knowledge, insight and the human skills that enable you to build a better, stronger team and enable you to build better relationships with clients so that they stay with you longer, are more loyal, who refer you, who are happy to pay decent fees and actually want to buy more from you, why not join this humanisethenumbers.online podcast with Alexandra. I'll look forward to seeing you there.

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