G01 whatis yourvalue-dougsleeterkeynote_solutions14conference_slideshare
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Doug Sleeter Keynote Address from Solutions14 Accounting Solutions Conference: This is our 11th annual conference. And I am SO pleased to welcome you to what I think you’ll agree is our most valuable conference yet. At The Sleeter Group, we spend all year designing the best conference experience for you, and you, and you. And all of our partners. Today, I want to talk about VALUE. Because VALUE is the one single thing that drives business success. It’s also the one thing people think they understand, but the perception of value is being disrupted by technology and client expectations. If you’re not convinced, I’m here to make that case.
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G01 whatis yourvalue-dougsleeterkeynote_solutions14conference_slideshare
- 1. WHAT IS YOUR VALUE? Doug Sleeter #Solutions14
- 2. @dougsleeter #Solutions14 THE DISRUPTION IS HERE • “Chunkification” • Zero Data Entry • Collaborative Services • Mobile Access
- 3. @dougsleeter #Solutions14 THE PARADIGM HAS ALREADY SHIFTED • “Chunkification” • Zero Data Entry • Collaborative Services • Mobile Access
- 4. @dougsleeter #Solutions14 HOW DATA IS: RECORDED PROCESSED ACCESSED ACTED ON
- 5. @dougsleeter #Solutions14 HOW DATA IS: RECORDED PROCESSED ACCESSED ACTED ON
- 6. @dougsleeter #Solutions14 HOW DATA IS: RECORDED PROCESSED ACCESSED ACTED ON
- 7. @dougsleeter #Solutions14 HOW DATA IS: RECORDED PROCESSED ACCESSED ACTED ON
- 8. @dougsleeter #Solutions14 WHAT DO SMBs WANT?
- 9. HOW SMBS SELECT AN ACCOUNTANT Expertise Responsiveness Proactive strategic advice Reputation Referral from someone… Latest and most… Personal relationship Low fees @dougsleeter #Solutions14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Large firm with multiple… Importance (scale of 1 – 10)
- 10. WHY SMBS LEAVE THEIR CPA Did not give proactive advice, only reactive Poor responsiveness Referral to new firm from someone I trust Lack of expertise Fees were too high Not using state-of-the-art technology Inadequate staff to meet needs No personal relationship @dougsleeter #Solutions14 New Definition of Value 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Poor Reputation Role in Decision (scale of 1 – 10)
- 11. @dougsleeter #Solutions14 Famous Quotes Current practice models are “Episodic & Passive, Transactional Services.” — Tom Hood, CPA.CITP “Accountants occasionally perform “Random Acts of Consulting,”… But the prevailing, obsolete business models focus on compliance.” — Edi Osborne, Mentor Plus
- 12. FUNDAMENTAL ASSUMPTIONS @dougsleeter #Solutions14 Business Model Technology Model People and Staffing Model Processes
- 13. OBSOLETE ASSUMPTIONS @dougsleeter #Solutions14 Bookkeeping Client Entered Using Desktop Software Information Paper Based Communication Mostly in Person Primary Revenue Compliance Source
- 14. •How viable is your practice today? •Five years from today? •Ten years from today? @dougsleeter #Solutions14 VIABILITY = VALUE
- 15. WHAT’S YOUR EXIT PLAN?
- 16. Self Assessment What is Your Current Value?
- 17. In Your Firm, What % of Money Moves Electronically? LIVE POLL ANSWERS from Solutions14 Attendees
- 18. What % of Client Interactions Use IM, Screen Sharing or Video Conferencing? LIVE POLL ANSWERS from Solutions14 Attendees
- 19. What % of Your Client Base Do you Service using Cloud Technologies? LIVE POLL ANSWERS from Solutions14 Attendees
- 20. REIMAGINED BUSINESS MODELS Embrace Technology Deepen Client Engagements 01 02 03 04 05 Specialize Change Leadership Use Professional-Centric Tools
- 21. @dougsleeter #Solutions14 EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY 01 • Less Paper • Documents in the Cloud • Client Portals • Web accessible Client-facing Services • Prescribe Apps to Your Clients - Rick Richardson, CPA.CITP
- 22. @dougsleeter #Solutions14 SPECIALIZATION 65% of SMBs surveyed said: “I want my CPA to be a specialist in my industry.” 02
- 23. “I’ve focused on a few things.” – Bill Gates
- 24. SPECIALIZE – LARGEST VERTICAL MARKETS Construction Retail Trade Real Estate Health Care @dougsleeter #Solutions14 - 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500 Arts/Ent/Recreation In Thousands 3.6 M 2.6 M
- 25. @dougsleeter #Solutions14 SPECIALIZATION LEXICON Hyper-Vertical Focus Urgent Care Centers McDonald’s Franchises Commercial Real Estate Jewelry Stores Process/Service Focus POS/Payments Outsourced Acct CFO Inventory Payroll IT/Security Vertical Focus Medical Restaurant Real Estate Retail
- 26. @dougsleeter #Solutions14 Successful Case Studies Leslie Shiner Construction Seth David Commercial Real Estate Jeanne Tarazevitz Inventory Control Bob Crook, Steve Green, David Glantz, Will English Point of Sale Caren Schwartz Legal
- 27. Online Accounting & Payroll AuditFile BillQuick Bigtime Deputy Harvest Legrand CRM Office Tools Pro Results CRM Scalus Zoho CRM Practice Ignition Workflow Max Engagement Management QBO Intacct Zoho Books Sage One Scanwriter AccountingSuite Tax1099 Wave Xero TSheets Zenpayroll SmartVault Filethis ReceiptBank Fujitsu Canon Neat Doc Management Hosting Services BizTools Qqube Bodetree Essential CFO Fathom Qvinci Plan Guru LivePlan Insperity Reveal Spotlight Reporting Biz Planning/Analytics/Dashboards Bill.com BillZoom BlueVine Instant Accept Rerun Banking & Payments
- 29. A CAREER OF EVER-INCREASING VALUE @dougsleeter #Solutions14 Advisory Specialization Expertise Practice Certifications Education Thriving Years 5 yrs 5 yrs 10 yrs 1 yr 5 yrs Thrive Focus Grow Practice Study Prepare They (Clients) We (Firm) Me (You) Time Activities Phase
- 30. @dougsleeter #Solutions14 WHAT FIRMS WANT • The firm is only as good as its people • The firm’s goal is to hire: • The Best Skills • Team Players • Continuous Learners • Your Ability (Expertise) Matters • But Your Agility is What Builds Your Long-Term Value
- 31. AGILITY TRUMPS ABILITY “Only the Paranoid Survive” • Strategic Inflection Points • Career Inflection Points • 10X Changes @dougsleeter #Solutions14
- 32. LEARNING – THE ULTIMATE VALUE ENHANCER L > C2 To maximize your value, you must learn Faster than the rate of change Faster than your competition Tom Hood CPA.CITP, CGMA – Business Learning Institute
- 33. www.solutionsconference.com Registration Opens April 2015 | Join our Facebook Group for deals, info & early bird updates! https://www.facebook.com/groups/sleetergroup/
Editor's Notes
- This is our 11th annual conference. And I am SO pleased to welcome you to what I think you’ll agree is our most valuable conference yet. At The Sleeter Group, we spend all year designing the best conference experience for you, and you, and you. And all of our partners. Today, I want to talk about VALUE. Because VALUE is the one single thing that drives business success. It’s also the one thing people think they understand, but the perception of value is being disrupted by technology and client expectations. If you’re not convinced, I’m here to make that case.
- Over the past several years, we’ve seen several emerging trends that are already disrupting the entire practice of accounting These trends are what I’ve been referring to as: “chunkification” of the business process zero data entry collaborative accounting services, and the explosion of mobile devices and mobile access to data. These trends are moving the cheese for accountants…
- At first glance, the trends seem to be about just bookkeeping technology, but if you think deeper, you’ll realize … They will affect you no matter where you are in your career, Whether you’re just starting out, in the middle of a thriving practice, or even if you’re close to retirement. It also applies to you, no matter what your current business model is. These disruptive trends, taken together represent overwhelming force for change in the market. They will impact virtually everything about …
- How Accounting Data is Recorded From manually entering data to leveraging bank feeds, to scan and populate technologies, to client-entered data from the Internet, such as happens in web stores
- How Accounting Data is Processed Where instead of paper-based routing for approvals, invoicing, and bank transactions, Processing data now happens much more electronically, via automated workflows and connections between applications.
- How Accounting Data is Accessed From pulling data from reports stored in file cabinets to online, real-time dashboards With drilldown on the numbers behind the numbers and benchmarking to compare performance against industry averages.
- How Accounting Data is Acted on By allowing management to respond instantly to changes in performance, or the marketplace. We can now provide our clients with unprecedented visibility into their business. This means we can add tremendous value to our clients like never before.
- What do small business owners really want? What SMBs Want from Their CPA is an annual study we conduct in our continuing effort to provide leadership for accounting professionals and small businesses. The purpose of the research is to identify important trends developing in what small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) want from their outside accounting firm. We learned a lot about what drives decisions among SMBs, and in particular how they go about selecting an accountant. We also learned that quite often, there’s a difference between what businesses want from their CPA and what they think their CPA wants to provide. Especially in the areas of technology consulting.
- When asked about the importance of certain criteria in choosing a CPA, respondents in the overall results rated “expertise,” “responsiveness,” the highest, But surprisingly, they said that “proactive strategic advice” was the third most important factor, with an average rating of 8.7, coming in ahead of “reputation.”
- So then, when we asked SMBs why they switched CPAs, they told us the most important factor was their “former CPA didn’t give proactive advice, only reactive service.” Note that fees didn’t even make the top 4 reasons for leaving. Most of you know it takes more than compliance services to maintain a client relationship. But this study clearly shows that businesses want an accountant who cares about their success and looks out for their best interest. In a very real sense, SMBs want their CPA relationship to be a “partnership.” That’s how SMBs define value
- Two of my good friends that speak about the business models behind these assumptions are Tom Hood, the CEO of Maryland Association of CPAs & The Business Learning Institute and Edi Osborne, the founder of Mentor Plus. Tom talks about the current business models as “Episodic & Passive, Transactional Services.” Edi Osborne says, we occasionally perform “random acts of consulting,” but the prevailing, obsolete business models focus on compliance.
- When you first started your firm, you probably made several assumptions about the business environment that led you to create your: Business Model Technology Model People and Staffing Model And Processes
- But if you started your practice more than about 5 years ago, most likely you made several assumptions that today would be considered obsolete. These obsolete assumptions are: Assumption 1: Client does bookkeeping in house, using desktop software with all accounting data stored on the client's internal desktops, LANs and servers. Assumption 2: Most information transfer between client and the firm was on paper. Reports from the client's accounting systems, receipts, cleared checks, and bank statements. Assumption 3: Client communication was mostly in person and by phone, with some email, but most likely you didn't set up a web site with a client portal where your clients could log in, upload documentation, and share any of the bookkeeping tasks with you or your staff. Assumption 4: Your primary revenue source was most likely designed around tax, while clients would do their own accounting. You probably decided this because there was not realistic, affordable technology solution that allowed you to provide client accounting systems profitably.
- And when you started your firm, you were diligent about building your firm to perfectly match these, now obsolete assumptions, so you assumed that your firm would be viable for decades to come. Furthermore, you naturally assumed that when you’re ready to retire, the you'll be able to sell your firm for 1 times billings. Does it really make sense to assume the firm designed with obsolete assumptions will have anywhere near the traditional value?
- Keep in mind that by the year 2020 (that’s only 6 years away), 50% of the workforce will be made up of Millennials who grew up with smart phones and cloud apps, and who want to work anytime/anywhere. Would they buy your firm today? What about in 6 years? Who would buy inefficiency, low profitability, and services that do not match what SMBs want?
- In Your Firm, What % of Money Moves electronically? https://www.polleverywhere.com/multiple_choice_polls/daEBHl6TMyHYMYz
- What % of Client Interactions Use IM, Screen Sharing, or Video Conferencing https://www.polleverywhere.com/multiple_choice_polls/LGB1vW6diTx87LA
- What % of Your Client Base do You Service using Cloud Technologies https://www.polleverywhere.com/multiple_choice_polls/3wt7gFVGQsHag6E
- To thrive in the coming years, accountants must completely rethink the business model The Overall Goals of your new world firm should include: Embracing technology should go without saying. But I’m saying to really opt in, and design your firm to leverage technology at every point in the practice. Specialize to focus your efforts where your skills and interests lie. Remembering that a jack of all trades is a master of none. Clients hire us to PROACTIVELY LEAD them to better solutions. If you think of yourself as a servant to whatever clients ask for, you need to change that thinking and become the leader for your clients. Deepen your client Engagements – For the past 20-30 years, accountants built business models focused on compliance (Tax and Audit). But in the new world, as we just discussed, clients really WANT us to help them with their business processes and strategic management. Use Professional-Centric Tools
- If you’re to redesign your firm to build its value in the marketplace, one of the first areas of focus should be on embracing technology, and designing business models that leverage technology. Start with: Less Paper – commit to the direction of reducing your reliance on paper throughout all processes. Documents in Web Vaults: The firm requires all clients to have their accounting records in the cloud. All accounting data, documents relating to transactions such as receipts, statements, invoices, contracts, and employee records. Client Portals: The firm will provide a web site portal where all clients can interact with the firm electronically. The portal will allow them to access all of their financial information, interact with the firm staff, monitor the status of any work the firm is doing, access historical data, view their financial and tax records in real time via a "dashboard" that shows the full financial picture and allows the client to self-serve to drill deeper into the information for detailed reports. Just like doctors are beginning to prescribe apps to their patients, Rick Richardson, who you’ll hear from tomorrow suggests that Accountants will prescribe apps to clients to capture, categorize, and record data into the accounting systems. But in order for that to happen, all of the core accounting systems will need to be in the cloud where apps can connect to them.
- Focus on what you can do best that matches what SMBs want. In our survey, we learned that 65% of SMB’s want their accountant to be a specialist in their industry. With the solutions you’ll learn about over the next three days, you’ll see how each of these options have real potential for success. But the key is focus.
- When Bill Gates was asked about what drives his success, he responded “I’ve focused on a few things.”
- If you want to specialize in vertical industries, here is a chart of the number of companies in the top 5 vertical markets in the US
- There are three ways to approach specialization. One is to go after vertical markets such as Medical, Real Estate, etc., Another way is to specialize further into a “hyper-vertical” – The more specialized you are, the easier it gets to market your practice and find customers. The third way is to focus on Processes and Services such as POS, Payments, Inventory, Payroll or CRM Each of these approaches have worked quite well for members in The Sleeter Group.
- Examples: Caren Schwartz, focuses nearly all her energy on helping the legal profession which is a large vertical market. She’s recently written a book, QuickBooks for Law Firms that we will be publishing for her very soon. Seth David focuses on the Commercial Real Estate hyper-vertical and that allows him to pull from his many “canned solutions” when he meets new clients. He’s also just finishing a book on that topic that we’ll be publishing soon. Bob Crook, Steve Green, David Glantz, and Will English all have thriving practices targeting the Point of Sale market. They are the go-to guys for the rest of the network, and they have proven that specializing in a horizontal vertical can be a very good model for your practice. Jeanne Tarazevits, a long-time member has a thriving practice specializing on a horizontal-vertical market, inventory control. By focusing there, she has thrived. The key is to find the specialization that most fits your interests and skills. The more specialized you can be, the more you can attract high-value clients, and referrals from other professionals.
- Professional-centric tools: These are tools that help the accountant provide services to clients Not just the tools to run the practice To deliver the most value, these tools must be accessible anytime/anywhere Includes the accounting, business process, and tax tools Can be used by client and/or accountant Here are several examples of tools that help you provide client services The groups of solutions include: Windows Hosting Services such as Cloud9 Real Time, Right Networks, Skyline Cloud Services by Unidata, and others Document Management solutions from SmartVault, Filethis, ReceiptBank, Fujitsu, Cannon, and Neat Online Accounting from Intuit, Xero, AccountingSuite, Intacct, Zoho Books, Sage One, Scanwriter, Tax1099, Wave, and Zenpayroll Engagement Management AuditFile, BillQuick, Bigtime, Deputy, Harvest, Legrand CRM, Office Tools Pro, Results CRM, Scalus, Zoho CRM, Practice Ignition, Workflow Max Business Planning, Analytics, and Dashborading BizTools, Qqube, Bodetree, Essential CFO, Fathom, Qvinci, Insperity Reveal, Plan Guru, LivePlan, Spotlight Reporting Banking and Payments Bill.com, BillZoom, BlueVine, Instant Accept, Rerun
- Those were the tools in your toolkit, but success is all about you, and how you build value throughout your life.
- Imagine your whole professional life in stages. When you first start out, you’re going to school, followed by earning certifications. This typically takes 6 or more years to complete including college. During this phase, you’re PREPARING yourself, and your focusing value on yourself. I call this the ME stage of your career. It’s an important time and this is where you hone your skills and abilities. If you skip this stage, you’re really hampering your future because it’s going to be really hard to even get a job without a solid education and demonstrable skills. So take whatever time you need to get this done right. Once you finish school and earn your certifications, you go into practice, usually for a firm for 5-10 years, but often this can be your whole career. In your first 10 years, you’re mostly learning the ropes and PRACTICING the craft you’ve chosen. Since most of your efforts are adding value to your firm, I call this the WE stage of your career. It’s a critical stage because this is where you learn to work on large projects and play your part in a team. You meet really smart people, and you begin to identify the areas that interest you, and those that do not. Although this is the WE stage, it’s a critical part adding the practical to your education. Now that you’ve got some good experience, you can truly call yourself an expert, perhaps in many areas. You spend about 5 years being the expert before you decide to specialize in a particular area that fits with your interests and talents. This is the beginning of the THEY stage of your career. In this stage, you are able to charge higher fees, market yourself to specific clients, and also be called on by your peers to help on clients who fit into your niche. Finally, as you develop deep, specialized experience and skills, you are ready and able to be the true most valuable advisor that clients really want from the accounting profession. Even though, all through your career, you can be adding tremendous value for clients, your focus in the later years is right in the bulls-eye of what clients really want.
- Whether you join a firm as an individual contributor, or a manager, or a partner, remember that the firm and the clients really want the same thing. Firms and really every business wants to hire and develop people with: The best skills Team players Continuous learners This means your success, no matter where you are in your career is to continually upgrade your skills in all of these areas. In the past, it may have been possible to get an accounting job, say as a bookkeeper and hold that same job, doing the same thing in the same way for decades. But that just simply won’t work anymore. Your Ability – or Expertise – Matters and you should always build on your abilities… But Your Agility is What Builds Your Long-Term Value
- No Matter Where you Focus… in today’s world… Agility Trumps Ability I highly recommend “Only the Paranoid Survive,” by Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel, published in 1999. Note: That was before GOOGLE, but the lessons are timeless, and extremely relevant to what’s happening today in the accounting profession. In this book Andy discusses: How business success contains the seeds of its own destruction. How a “Strategic Inflection Point” is a point in the life of a business when its fundamentals are about to change. But… He says that you can be the SUBJECT of a strategic inflection point or the CAUSE of one. How Career Inflection Points caused by a change in the environment do not distinguish between the qualities (or ABILITY) of the people they dislodge. And how “10X changes” cause tremendous force for change in markets. Such as when sound came to movies, or when the semiconductor revolutionized the computer industry. These concepts apply today more than ever.
- Finally, your ULTIMATE VALUE ENHANCER is to learn continuously throughout your life. It is LEARNING that will help you capture and profit from the value you create for yourself. Tom Hood has a formula, he calls L is greater than C squared. This means you must learn Faster than the rate of change in the marketplace And Faster than your competition I thank him, and especially Sage for sponsoring three of his top instructors from the Business Learning Institute to present at this conference. So you’re in the right place to build your value in the coming days. From everyone at The Sleeter Group, I thank you for your business, and for placing your trust in us to help you navigate the future. Have a great conference!