Planning for your future and that of clients

After the 2008 banking crash, we saw a big increase in the SME sector as people set up their own businesses.

Those actions fuelled a decade of growth economically – alongside stable inflation. Then Covid-19 came along and put a spanner in the works.

Conversations with industry leaders and the lending community have been around the post-furlough situation, and the number of redundancies we face in the UK.

But I also hear from people who don’t want to go back to their former role, who are fed up with serving as ‘tools’ for companies.

I believe we’ll see a similar trajectory post 2008/09: a big increase in the micro/small business sector. So, for accountants, it should be a great chance to get behind new businesses.

But this growth in entrepreneurial spirit needs support. It needs the government to get behind it, and truly support burgeoning businesses through appropriate structures. But accountants need to change their mindset as well. They need to take on board that ours is not a ‘historic art’.

I know we have traditionally looked at the past, certainly in terms of managing clients’ tax and reporting compliance, but we now need to look to the future. There are tools we’ve been given as accountants that can enable us to do that, and the IFA fully #supports this direction. For example, it is regularly updating its email shots with ‘business world’ updates. And being involved in regional IFA events can broaden your knowledge.

I see start-ups come to accountants for support and advice, but lots of accountants don’t understand the opportunities for these types of clients: the types of loans and financing facilities available such as early-stage business finance and cashflow finance.

Grow your value

We have an opportunity to think not just about managing the past and setting the present, but thinking about he future. Someone should be able to go to an accountant and know that the statutory stuff will be done, before discussing planning, reporting and analysis, finance, and investment.

It’s all about stepping up. There are key paths to help new businesses plan: Forecasting and cashflow (what’s your plan? The blueprint to the company); then infrastructure (here’s the blueprint and now the bricks – staff , skills, recruitment HR, employment, payroll, pensions); and finance (self-funding, enough cash, contingency planning, funding options).

Invest time in your clients, while thinking about your own planning. There’s nothing like knowledge built up over time – your knowledge is invaluable.
And, even if MTD isn’t for you, perhaps take start-up non-exec roles - don’t waste what you’ve learned!

Maxim Cohen is chief executive of the UK Adviser Group, accountant at Royce Cohen, and an IFA member.