What to do if your accountant doesn’t tell you anything

If you related to our article “Why your accountant doesn’t tell you anything” you are probably wondering what to do about it!  Well, you essentially have two workable options:

1/ Stay and try to make the relationship work; OR
2/ Take your business elsewhere.

If you plan to stay, here’s the thing – you are going to have to change the way you approach this relationship. Why? Because your accountant doesn’t think there is anything wrong in the first place!

So, if you’re looking for more, but you’re not getting it, you’re going to have to ask for it!  And because your accountant is fairly literal (most are), you’re going to have to be specific.

The difficulty then lies in identifying what ‘it’ is. After all, you don’t know what it is that you don’t know! If this is your situation too, then we suggest that you ask your accountant to: 

• Tell  you about the things they have done to help other clients improve their business
• Tell you about the piece of work that they are most proud of
• Tell you what three things they would do if they were made CEO of your business tomorrow
• Send you links to articles that they think might be relevant to you or your business

 That should create enough ‘food for thought’ to start a useful conversation about your business. However, if for some reason that draws a blank, then you’re going to have to do some more work.

We suggest you find that place where you do your best thinking (for many, it’s in the shower – for me, it’s the coffee shop) and contemplate what one thing would most benefit your business (access to more cash and increased sales feature prominently as responses to this question – probably because they promote less stress, more freedom and more possibilities – all things we strive for!). Then ask your accountant how he or she can help you with this one thing.

If you plan to take your business elsewhere, you might be surprised just how easy it is to move on.

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Neil Parker

MANAGING DIRECTOR

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