How does an accountancy firm’s leadership team – the whole team – radically change the use of software, processes and systems within their firm?
That’s a big question to unpack, but in this humanisethenumbers.online podcast discussion between myself and Eriona Bajrakurtaj, you'll hear how she has transformed the behaviour and performance of the people, as well as the effectiveness of the systems and processes, in her 19-person, 1600-client firm.
She and her team moved a thousand clients from one way of bookkeeping to another in just six months – a thousand clients in six months! This is a podcast definitely worth listening to if you are wondering how to approach change in your firm.
Listen in to hear Eriona describe her journey – from her start as a 13-year-old bookkeeper in her father's accounting firm to transforming that firm later in life as Managing Director.
I hope you enjoy this podcast with Eriona as much as I did, and I hope you can take from the discussion insights that will help you humanise the numbers in your own firm.
Please scroll down this episode page for Eriona's contact information, as well as for an additional resource mentioned in the podcast.
The Solution:
When we went digital, when we chose QuickBooks online, we onboarded a thousand clients within six months, which was a huge project.
I spent the first six months trying to entice everybody in the team, and this was in 2017 when not many practices were talking about it and I was saying ‘I went to QuickBooks connect and I’ve got this great idea.’
The only reason I went to QuickBooks connect that year was to see how I was going to be compliant for MTD for my clients; I was not looking for anything else.
But when I was there, I saw all the different accounts and what they could do and all the different speakers and I remember sitting in the audience thinking ‘what are we doing, we're so behind, we could change our practice completely and our service offering and just make it so much more interesting for everybody.’
For me, that's when the light bulb turned on in my head.
SHOW NOTES
Connect with Eriona
Connect with Paul
Resources relating to this podcast:
Listen to Paul and Eriona discuss the importance of working with the right clients - those who you care about and who also care about you.
Eriona talks about the bold move she made in 2019 of sending disengagement letters to the clients that were offering no value to her team or firm.
She also discusses the 80/20 rule and its importance in the decision she made - she parted company with the 20% of clients that were causing the most issues for her and her team, taking up 80% of their time, which was incongruent with their size and fee.
This Bitesize Business Breakthrough will show you that when you start to look closely at your use of time, you’ll almost certainly find an 80/20 imbalance. Think of what's at stake, if anything like 4 days of your working week produce a miserly 1 day's worth of results. It therefore follows that there’s massive value in understanding how 80/20 works and how it can add value to your firm, just as it did for Eriona.
Eriona now only works with those clients who appreciate the value of the work done by her and her team.
Click the link on the button to discover how to redress the 80/20 balance that may exist in your firm and learn how to re-organise your resources, your people and your time to ensure you give your best clients the time and attention they deserve.
