As the world becomes increasingly digital and data-driven, it’s more important than ever for accountants to stay ahead of the curve and leverage the latest growth strategies. The emergence of new technologies, automation, and cloud-based solutions is transforming the way practices operate. These changes bring opportunities to improve efficiency, accuracy, and the overall client experience.
The year 2023 commenced adversely for UK businesses, with the recession slowing down overall growth. While the accounting industry is no exception, a massive opportunity exists for accountants and practice owners to capitalise on.
In this blog, we’ve compiled five simple but effective tips to help you turn the current adversity into an opportunity and empower your practice in the new year.
Five Simple But Effective Tips To Help You Turn The Current Adversity Into An Opportunity
USE THE RECESSION TO SCALE YOUR SERVICES
The recession can be a challenging time for businesses, but it can also be an opportunity for accounting firms to scale their services and attract new clients. The extensive layoffs in the business world have created huge opportunities for accountants to fill the gaps, step into new arenas, and add new services to their portfolios.
Moreover, businesses are currently in dire need of good financial advice and accountants can satiate that demand. Therefore, now is the best time to add advisory to your service offerings and scale your practice. While this can be challenging owing to the skill gaps within accountancy firms, partnering with a credible accounting outsourcing services provider can help.
INVEST IN TECHNOLOGY
Investing in technology is no longer an option but a necessity for accounting firms to remain competitive in 2023. Whether you’re looking to automate your bookkeeping processes or provide more accurate financial reporting to your clients, technology is crucial to helping you stay ahead of the curve.
Many recent studies have advocated the accounting industry’s growing inclination towards cutting-edge technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, automation, and machine learning. These technologies not only facilitate efficient and error-free accounting but also enable remote accountants to work from anywhere, anytime, thus facilitating a quick turnaround.
LEVERAGE THE BENEFITS OF OUTSOURCING
Outsourcing has become a popular trend in the accounting industry, and for good reasons. Whether it is something as simple as basic bookkeeping or year-end accounts outsourcing or a more complex task such as tax preparation or financial planning, outsourcing helps reduce costs and create capacity for accountancy firms.
In 2023, it will be critical for accountants to focus on creating capacity within their firms in order to explore new growth avenues and capitalise on brewing opportunities. Moreover, cost savings is essential in the face of the rising inflation. With outsourcing, you can hire talented accountants, bookkeepers, audit support and tax professionals to manage your core tasks while your internal teams can deal with clients and explore new services.
BRIDGE THE SKILLS GAP IN YOUR FIRM
Before thinking of scaling your services and growing your practice, let’s address the elephant in the room – the skills gap. Talent shortages have been hounding the accounting industry for years now and trends such as the Great Resignation have only made it worse. Today, millennials and GenZ accountants prefer working for huge corporations that offer plenty of growth opportunities instead of small accountancy practices.
Additionally, with the recession in action, many accountancy firms are returning to the office and accountants are not pleased with the change. This has widened the skills gap within the industry, leaving over one-third of accountancy firms understaffed.
While outsourcing solves this problem, onshoring goes a step further and can effectively bridge the talent gaps within your firm. Onshoring lets practice owners hire resources from top accounting outsourcing firms in India and have them work from the UK. The onshore resources are highly skilled, experienced, and completely managed by the onshoring provider. Thus, the onshoring outsourcing model can help resolve your talent shortages with over 50% savings than in-house costs.
MARKET YOUR PRACTICE
You may not have done it before, but marketing will be crucial for your firm as competition in the industry rises. Marketing doesn’t have to be a strenuous, extravagant affair. It can be as simple as sending emails to prospective clients, building a functional website, strengthening your social media presence, or attending events and workshops and exhibiting at conferences. You may also want to focus on word-of-mouth publicity by referring your business to your current clients, peers, and colleagues.
The goal of marketing isn’t just attracting new clients. It aims to project your practice in a positive light and remain at the top of prospects’ minds so that they consider you when they are ready.
Although marketing shouldn’t be an elaborate effort, you will need staff to manage it. And understandably, not all accountants are good marketers and salespersons. This is where upskilling could be crucial for your firm. Practice owners can outsource the core tasks to remote accountants and create upskilling opportunities for their internal teams. This will not only help in promoting your practice but also facilitate employee retention.
SUMMING UP
Although 2023 did not begin on a positive note for UK businesses, accountancy firms still have a good scope to make the most of the adversity. Where corporations are struggling in the areas of accounting and financial planning, accountancy practice owners can seize the opportunity and create new revenue possibilities for their firms.
Technology, outsourcing, and client satisfaction will be of utmost importance in the coming years to ensure an accountancy firm’s success. If you are looking for dedicated accounting outsourcing support for your practice, connect with us at +44 208 144 8995 or drop us an email at askus@finexcoutsourcing.com
