Recently I sat down with Steven, an accountant at the top of his game whose accounting team solves the tax side of the business equation and whose financial planners grow those new profits into worthwhile long-term investments.
In the course of our session Steve reminded me how, when he first bought into his practice, he had resolved to be the best resource his business clients could possibly ask for but was unsure how to implement this. That's where business coaching came in.
Through regular coaching sessions, we guided Steve to design a service offering second to none that included:
- Up-front pricing so that clients would know their costs in advance.
- Fixed fee service contracts against which clients paid monthly, with an annual adjustment in June to square the books.
- Quarterly (in some cases monthly) performance reviews with each Client, including benchmarking against their industry.
- Consultation on every financial matter from tax and investment to business, succession and exit strategies.
Not surprisingly, many of the original practice clients left in the first year with others being invited to do so until Steve was left with just 250 high-quality clients (less than 33% of the original client base) on whom he was now focusing his considerable business acumen.
In the three years since kicking off, those Clients have thrived under Steve's regime and most have grown substantially in both size and sophistication. The end result for Steve's own business has been no less spectacular with more than 200% increase in revenue, an even more spectacular increase in profits - and a steady stream of new ("perfect") clients drawn to his reputation.
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