H Nicholsons Member Blog

Changing Client Culture

info@hnicholsons.co.uk — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:11:34 GMT

Culture is an interesting thing. Culture can be difficult to change, but sometimes the culture of a business is best changed for the benefit of the business and those involved.

Business culture can cover a broad range of areas but we're going to focus on habits and values. Working on these can greatly affect and improvea client's financial management.

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More Profitable with Efficient Templates

info@hnicholsons.co.uk — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:40:00 GMT

This is something I'm still often surprised at. As an accountant advising a client, wouldn't you often recommend introducing or improving processes, minimising costs, introducing quality control and all those other simple yet wonderful bits of advice that can be rattled off for most businesses?

So why is it so many of us don't consider this advice ourselves?

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What hourly rate?

info@hnicholsons.co.uk — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 10:01:37 GMT

Surprisingly, I hear many bookkeepers aren't sure what rate they should be charging, and many still under charge. What do you need to consider to get this right?

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Advertising Your Service

info@hnicholsons.co.uk — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:47:48 GMT

In a few forums now I've seen bookkeepers and accountants ask about where to advertise their services... if the local newspaper is any good, or a flyer drop to businesses.

One thing I've not seen asked much is how to advertise their services!

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What's an Accountancy Service?

info@hnicholsons.co.uk — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:18:03 GMT

I often question whether clients are getting the most value from their accountants. Do they really know the value that accountants can provide to a business? I’ve seen many situations where clients are using their accountants simply to process their financial transactions and meet their statutory obligations.

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Setting Up or Moving Office - Opportunities

info@hnicholsons.co.uk — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:33:17 GMT

I know setting up or moving office can be tiring and there are the usual benefits of more space, meeting rooms, better location, professional image and so on.

But are there additional opportunities you might not be thinking about?

It would be great to benefit as much as possible and as quickly as possible from the move, so I've been thinking a little about what you could do.

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Blogging for Accountants

info@hnicholsons.co.uk — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 09:00:00 GMT

Slowly accountants are starting to take advantage of blogging. Let's take a look at how accountants can take advantage of blogs and what rewards there can be.

Blogs have been around for years, and people from all walks of life have been involved with blogging... but are accountants joining them?

Accountants have not been blogging as much as those in many other industries, but this number is increasing. Oddly enough, a lot of the current accounting-related information available through blogs has been published by law firms and 'non-accountant' service firms!

So why should accountants get involved with blogs?

This is my very first blog, in-fact I never bothered to publish a blog anywhere before. I have viewed many, subscribed (via RSS) to a few. All it took for me to start this blog was to learn a little more about the relationship between blogs and accountants. I did this with a quick search on blogging and accountants, and a little thought... and this is what I came up with.

Blogging is a marketing and PR game. Publishers get noticed, build a reader-base and receive recognition for the information published in the blog. A blog is not directly about selling your business, or yourself... but that is what it can do.

Many businesses use the internet as a source of information. They visit websites, ask questions in forums, read knowledge bases, and they read blogs. Although this is usually free information, we all know there are times when a professional service is required, so isn't it better to be known?

Creating and maintaining a blog that is useful and interesting to your target audience will build your profile and image. It can sell your level of knowledge and expertise. Consider what you know, how you help many of your clients with simple every-day advice. It needn't be extremely technical, only interesting and useful to be a success.

Focusing on a topic area can also help. Readers will develop a relationship with you, through your blog. Leaving comments, and opening up discussions and thought build on this and can strengthen your relationships. This interaction can provide you with useful feedback, and keep up with the business mind of others.

What might an accountant cover in a blog? Just from the top of my head I can think of numerous topics that would interest a wide business audience. They don't have necessarily require a great deal of knowledge, experience or technical know-how, but should be on something you have familiarised yourself with.

Topics might include software, taxation, technology, reporting, cash management, business valuation, investments, small business (eg. petty cash handling), business structures and so on. There are plenty of areas you could cover that would attract an audience.

The internet is also highly visible and gives you a greater reach to an audience than any other medium. Simply maintaining a successful blog will only help build people's awareness of you.

Blogs also can be accessed via RSS (Really Simple Syndication). This means regular readers can subscribe to your blog without needing to visit the website to check. This is read via an RSS Reader, something many internet browsers and email software have built-in. It also means your blog can be received on other websites using a reader, just like the Other News section on this website.

Of course it can take time to think of a topic, possibly conduct a little research and write up a blog entry, but the rewards are there.

Harry Nicholson
H Nicholsons Accountants

You are welcome to republish this article providing you include the following text and link at the end of the article:

Harry Nicholson, H Nicholson Accountants - A fictitious sample member of The Accountants Circle.