I'm forever reading 'accountants can now add extra value' or the landscape is changing, 'you as an accountant should be offering added value services!'
What on earth are added value services?
Surely this is what folk do for clients already, help to keep them compliant -
Are you offering value added services?
If so, would you kindly tell me what they are? As I've not a clue - all I can visualise is the designing of management accounts, forecasts and such.
Thank you
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Johnny - Owner of an overly-active keyboard.
A man who can read, yet doesn't, is in no way wiser than a man who can't.
If it's 'value added service' then I'd say it's something that adds value to what you would consider your 'core' services.
Bearing in mind I don't attempt to advertise my business in the bookkeeping field at all (yet it's what I spend most of my time doing), where I work at a clients' offices they tend to learn fairly quickly that my skills go way beyond bookkeeping and I often end up using some of those other skills (e.g. sorting out IT problems for an obvious example). So I'd guess that sort of thing would be value added services I provide.
If you want stupid marketing buzzwords, though, just look at the large companies in the technology field. Things are being described far too often as "beautiful" and it drives me nuts (not least because I consider function to be more important than form - I couldn't give a supersonic shit if a device is 'beautiful' if it's bloody awkward to use!)
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
tend to learn fairly quickly that my skills go way beyond bookkeeping
Can totally relate to this one!
eg I do some agent work for my footballer client. Not from the beginning but because I built up a good rapport with the huge variety of folk he had done work for and so follow up for new stuff just becomes second nature and easy - its all about staying in front of these people so they dont forget who you are.
other eg - do some resourcing work for another client as she just thinks Im so organised! Again gained after dealing with her books for a couple of years.
Prove yourself to some of these smaller business owners and they would happily give you way more than the usual bookkeeping, especially some of the smaller management teams who easily see you as another valued part of their management structure.
I seem to be the IT guru at one of my clients and I know absolutely NOTHING about techy stuff....but apparently more than the rest of them! Only one problem - not enough hours in the day!
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
The best I've seen is where a design company seemingly picks a colour, and flicks open the dictionary to come up with the most elaborate of names.
It makes sense whereby you mention core skills - building up further what you offer already.
Do you work from home too Vince in your bookkeeping / accountancy capacity, or do you solely work within client premises?
Hi Joanne,
Taken from what you mentioned in another thread, acting as a FD for a small business I think hits the nail right on the head. Of course as we know the client would need to want this form of service. But with acting as a FD, even if it's not in a literal sense, seems to be a great way to look at future potential business growth.
Thanks
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Johnny - Owner of an overly-active keyboard.
A man who can read, yet doesn't, is in no way wiser than a man who can't.
It's a mixture - depends largely on the size of the client and the amount of paperwork. For my biggest client I work almost exclusively on site, but I have my own stationery cupboard... sorry, I mean office, and I use my laptop, but I've installed my own equipment there - screen, printer, etc.
It's a handy arrangement, because when I go to trade shows, rather than crawl around in awkward corners disconnecting stuff at home, it's MUCH easier to disconnect the stuff there and load it into the car - so the stuff on my desk there is what I use for shows, rather than the stuff at home. (With the exception of the printer* - I don't take that!)
In fact, I actually store other stuff I use for shows in that office as well!
* The one I keep there is actually too big to set up at home - and I sometimes think I could use an A3 printer, so if I bought one the only place I could set it up is there.
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
Taken from what you mentioned in another thread, acting as a FD for a small business I think hits the nail right on the head. Of course as we know the client would need to want this form of service. But with acting as a FD, even if it's not in a literal sense, seems to be a great way to look at future potential business growth.
Thanks
It seems one of mine wants me as the Ops manager as well at the mo. Driving me nuts in some respects as I cannot get 'my' work done but nice to help them out where I can!
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
Grow Through Numbers - 9 stage process to systematically help client grow their business
Lifetime Financial Responsibility - 14 stage process to help clients plan for their future
Price Consulting - 7 step process to help clients better price
Cloud Conversion - Helping clients move to the cloud. Have already done two of these and have 2 in the pipeline (one of which doing this week).
Tax Planning - host of tax planning options including; capital allowance review, R&D claims, dividend impact review, property impact review, company car impact review, childcare cost impact, advance tax planning for corporate clients with taxable profits in excess of £100k
In my view value added is doing stuff that isnt traditional accounting/bookkeeping work but working with clients on a consultancy basis to identify where clients want to go with their business and what we can do to help them get there. Could be; increasing sales, increasing profits, improve cashflow, reducing tax, getting better work/life balance, increasing take home pay, improving the value of their business, systemising their business so it doesnt rely on them to do everything.
Do you have any regrets in offering those extra services? Do you find those clients are calling you every five minutes? Is it possible to fix price those extras?
Is it fair to label those extras as business consultancy?
Thanks
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Johnny - Owner of an overly-active keyboard.
A man who can read, yet doesn't, is in no way wiser than a man who can't.
