Humanise The Numbers - for ambitious accountants in practice

I recently had the great privilege to spend an hour with a business leader who had sold their business just a few days before, after 22 years. That business started in their bedroom, and they built it up over time to just short of a million-pound turnover – a modest-sized business, but what an insight into client care and how you create a business that works brilliantly with three grades of client, establishing enough capital value to enable it to be sold for a substantial sum. I hope you'll take time out to listen to this deep and meaningful, highly valuable conversation with Tracy Irwin. She signposts specifics that you and your firm can employ to build that value equation in your clients' minds, allow you to better look after your team so that they deliver exceptionally for your clients and then to ‘live happily ever after’, as the saying goes. I thoroughly enjoyed and found the discussion with Tracy profoundly insightful. Go to your favourite podcast platform or to www.humanisethenumbers.online and please scroll down the podcast’s episode page for the contact information for Tracy and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in the podcast.

What must it feel like to leave a promising, high-flying career with a leading firm and start up your own firm – to hand your notice in and, six months later, kick-start your accountancy firm with one client?Well, that's exactly what Kat Wellum-Kent has done. She set up Fractional Finance and has grown that to a business with a fairly clear vision of building a £5 million turnover business in just five years. She already has clients paying her, yes, £400 a month, but also clients paying her £7500 a month. On this podcast, you'll hear Kat share her insights around fairness for the team and the vision based around how this will play out for her clients and the capital value that she's going to help them grow. She shares the importance of building a vision board and having good reasons for why you're doing what you're doing, so that in those moments where it gets tough, you can have a quick check-in on your vision board and say, yeah, I'm on the right path. Why not go to this podcast discussion with Kat Wellum-Kent to hear those deep insights and see how they might apply to your established firm, or your startup firm, or the firm that you've got in your mind's eye that you're looking to set up in the not-too-distant future. I'm certain you'll get great value and enjoy the discussion we have together. Go to www.humanisethenumbers.online or to your favourite podcast platform and you'll find Kat Wellum-Kent sharing her deep, meaningful insights.Please scroll down the podcast’s episode page for the contact information for Kat and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in the podcast.

There’s something very remarkable about the work accountants can do to transform the lives of their business owner clients, transform the results of their business, and feel a sense of pride, satisfaction and passion for the work they do. On this podcast discussion with Andrew Botham – accountant, business owner, guide, consultant, whatever label you want to give him – Andrew tells a handful of stories about how, with two or three numbers – not numbers that show up in the balance sheet or the P&L, but a handful of numbers – you can help business owners see sense and make decisions that turn a business that's generating £300k worth of profit per annum into a business that's generating £927k in net profit every month. This is because, as accountants, they help the business owner zero in on a handful of KPIs, ask a handful of questions and encourage the business owner to make a handful of key decisions. I've worked with Andrew in the past, and it was a delight to have him on the podcast to unpack his simple, effective ways and means of running client discussions, helping business owners transform their results. You can access the full podcast at Spotify, iTunes or your favourite podcast platform, or you can find it at www.humanisethenumbers.online. Please scroll down the episode page for this podcast for the contact information for Andrew and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in the podcast.

When your clients feel at home, they tend to want to stay at home. That's a statement by James Butterworth, a tech and advisory specialist from the VIP team at Croner-i.In this podcast discussion, I was surprised by how this conversation moved to a place where we discussed how a better understanding of the client and what they want, as well as tax law and the way you manage your clients' tax affairs, is what ultimately humanises the numbers. This is a fascinating conversation with James which essentially confirms that the better you are at being curious about what's in the best interests of your clients, you build stronger relationships that ensure that clients are more likely to stay with you. If it's a prospect, they are more likely to join your firm because you take a proactive approach to your clients’ tax affairs using the support of a specialist. This is far from a sales pitch from James – it's more a ‘what can you do in general practice to make more of tax when working with your clients?’ It was an unexpected, enjoyable and valuable conversation with James. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. You can get access to the full podcast discussion on your favourite podcast platform or go to www.humanisethenumbers.online.Please scroll down the podcast’s episode page for the contact information for James and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.

When you dive into a deep conversation with a person who has worked in a village accountancy practice, someone who has also been part of a national firm and who has worked within an organisation to establish a new office, improving the fees by £100k per month, you know you're likely to have a decent podcast discussion.In this conversation with Stuart Hurst of Cloud 10, a business in startup phase, we start unpacking what a startup does to not only build revenue, but also to build capital value by installing good structure and process. Stuart’s got a real eye on scaling the business without putting undue stress on him as a business leader. Don't get me wrong – any startup has its own challenges, and significant opportunities as well, and Stuart shares some of those on this podcast. When you've got a podcast called Humanise The Numbers, it's great to have a deep, meaningful, personal conversation to tie the numbers to the humanity of what's going on in an accounting firm. I hope you enjoy this podcast and find it as valuable, insightful and practical as both Stuart and I tried to make it. If you want to hear more, please go to www.humanisethenumbers.online or to your favourite podcast platform. Please scroll down the episode page for this podcast for the contact information for Stuart and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in the podcast.

It's not every day you get the opportunity to interview the Global Chief Technology Officer of one of the landmark suppliers to the accounting profession.  In this podcast discussion with Aaron Harris from Sage, we explored a few issues around using AI in the accounting profession. We, perhaps surprisingly, opened up a very human conversation on this topic, exploring the idea that the success of your firm in using AI to support your clients and work better with your team is founded on trust.  There is much scepticism around the use of AI in the accountancy profession, but it is important to work out how to build a high-trust environment within which AI can work. Bearing in mind that Bill Gates recently said that the use of AI is profoundly more impactful than any other single thing in the history of Microsoft, it’s something we have to take seriously. It’s not something that we need to be fearful of, but it is something that requires a foundation of trust.  So why not check out this profoundly valuable podcast discussion with Aaron Harris.  All you need to do is go to your favourite podcast platform and hunt out Aaron Harris, or go to www.humanisethenumbers.online.

It's not often you get the chance to chew the fat with someone who's worked with Ford, with Tata, with Levi’s, as well as with numerous other high-end, well-known, well-recognised international brands, and be able to talk to them about what ‘brand’ and accountants have to do with each other. And what Philippa does brilliantly on this podcast is to unpack two or three deep, key insights that can help you and your firm connect with the messaging around your firm's brand, to underpin the future success of your marketing, of your client loyalty and, arguably, the loyalty of your team. So why not go to www.humanisethenumbers.online and look for the podcast with Philippa Haynes or go to your favourite podcast platform. I hope you take some real value from this podcast, which is principally about marketing, but which also encompasses a discussion around ‘brand promise’. Please scroll down the episode page for this podcast for the contact information for Philippa and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in the podcast.

When you listen in to a conversation with a leader of an accounting business with over 100 people, and you hear how seriously they take investment in their team now so that it delivers a return in 12, 18, 24 or even 36 months, it's well worth considering what’s being said. So, when Rebecca Mihalic of the Australian firm businessDEPOT talks about taking team members along to client meetings, not as a piece of furniture (to use her language), but as active participants in the meeting, using the tools of the meeting to enable them to contribute in a valuable, meaningful way, you can see how Rebecca is growing her team to deliver a result for her personally. She can cascade client relationship work to others, work that otherwise might not happen. It's a valuable discussion. There's a phrase towards the end of the discussion where Rebecca talks about creating a safe space to fail and a safe space to win as being one of the fundamental concepts that she uses when leading and managing her team. You’ll find many helpful insights in this discussion with Rebecca. I hope you'll go to your favourite podcast platform, whether it be iTunes or Spotify or another platform, or join us at humanisethenumbers.online and look for this podcast discussion with Rebecca Milahic. Please scroll down the episode page for this podcast for the contact information for Rebecca and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in the podcast.

It's simply brilliant when you can spend some time with a chartered accountant, one who spent 17 years with EY down in Australia before becoming an owner-managed business buying accountancy services. Craig believes that an accountant does a brilliant job, a better job, if they're 80% human and 20% accountant when working with their owner-managed business clients. This podcast discussion is with Craig McKell, from our very good friend AdvanceTrack. Craig is working in the profession again and is now the General Manager of Asia Pacific for AdvanceTrack. He's amazed at the challenges the profession faces from a talent-shortage perspective. He shares a brilliant insight around the fact that you don't have to fall far from the corporate world of accountancy to make a real difference with real people – owner-managed businesses. It's worth going to this podcast to understand what you do, for example, with three names. What could you do with three names so that you're more human than you are an accountant (80% human, 20% accountant)? You’ll find great value in this podcast as we discuss the 80/20 rule according to Craig McKell. I hope you enjoy this practical, passionate podcast with Craig McKell of AdvanceTrack. All you need to do is go to your favourite podcast platform or join us at humanisethenumbers.online and seek out the podcast with Craig McKell.Please scroll down the podcast’s episode page for the contact information for Craig and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.

It's not every day you get to interview an accountant who's also a retailer and a podcaster, and in this discussion with Andrew Van De Beek from Australia – Andrew runs a twenty-person accountancy business in Victoria – the discussion turns almost into a philosophical debate, but with real, practical outcomes.Andrew is committed to the concept of the business of relationships, with a core focus, a core purpose, around building businesses and helping owner-managed business leaders build organisations that stand the test of time. We spent time talking about process and people. We spent a bit of time talking about purpose and profitability as well. But it was the depth of the conversation, the detail of the insight, that stood out for me. I thoroughly enjoyed speaking to Andrew. I hope you enjoy this podcast as much as I did. Go to your favourite podcast platform or go to humanisethenumbers.online and seek out the podcast with Andrew Van de Beek.Please scroll down the podcast’s episode page for the contact information for Andrew and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in the podcast.

When someone says to me that the numbers are the outputs, and it's the team, it's the humans, that are the inputs, you can imagine I'm all ears. In this podcast discussion with Nicky Clough of Insight Training, you'll hear Nicky unpack and expand on those thoughts. Yes, accountants are obsessed with the numbers, quite rightly so, because that's their area of expertise, but maybe we should also be obsessed with the humans in our firms, the people, and what we do to build their knowledge and skills. Nicky talks about the importance of building self-awareness as, when there's a higher degree of self-awareness, there's the willingness, the motivation, the ability, even, to build knowledge and skill.I hope you get something of real value from this discussion with Nicky Clough – I certainly did. And you can get the full podcast at humanisethenumbers.online or you can go to your favourite podcast platform and seek out Humanise The Numbers and Nicky Clough.Please scroll down this episode page for the contact information for Nicky and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.

If your firm is making good use of technology, and embracing new technology as well, if you are building the knowledge and skill of your team and building deeper relationships with your clients, you'll know that you’re on track for the ambitious future you have in mind for your firm, your team and your clients. In this podcast with Nicki Savill of Moore Kingston Smith, Nicki spends a good deal of time talking about how to build deeper relationships with clients and how to build a stronger sense of human connection across the team as, ultimately, it is the team's knowledge and skills that deliver for your clients. It's a powerful discussion. Nicki's very open and candid about what they do and how they do it, as well as about the metrics they use around face-to-face meetings, face-to-face interactions with the team – these are far more human than when using Teams or Zoom.You'll hear Nicki describe how important, how impactful, those handshake, face-to-face discussions are with both team and clients. I hope you enjoy this discussion with Nicki as much as I did. The time absolutely flew by and I think you'll get something of significant value from the insights that Nicki shares. You can get the full podcast at humanisethenumbers.online, or you can go to your favourite podcast platform and seek out Humanise The Numbers and Nicki Savill.Please scroll down this episode page for the contact information for Nicki and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.

Sometimes the work we do is a real privilege, especially when we are able to have a deep discussion about what it means to humanise the numbers with someone who's qualified as a chartered accountant, has loved his time in practice, put his hands up for everything he could possibly put his hand up for, but who moved on (because he didn't like the geography) into Sage to do a tech support role, then into sales with Wolters Kluwer, ending up as Managing Director of UK and Ireland.That person is Neil Parsons.In this podcast, we discuss the relevance of the right numbers for the right person in the context of the strategic key results of the business. And building those bridges and ensuring that there's a metronomic cadence to communicating the right numbers to the right people in the right way is as relevant to clients as it is to team members. And that's what struck me in this podcast – everything we talked about was as relevant to clients as it was to team members. I hope you find this podcast discussion with Neil as valuable, informative and insightful as I did. Please scroll down the episode page for this humanise the numbers podcast for the contact information for Neil and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in the podcast.

You’d probably agree that, if you get to a place where you have a strong collaborative relationship with a client and you're doing what you can to educate them and to protect the best interests of their business, you're going to be building a deep relationship, a loyal, long-standing relationship, with that particular client.And it was those three factors – collaboration, education and protection – that stood out as the valuable elements of this discussion with Mike Dean of Whisper Claims, as he talks about R&D Tax, something I wasn’t expecting would show up on the Humanise the Numbers podcast. But Mike talks a lot of sense with regard to collaboration, protection and education in the R&D Tax space, a sector in which there is a high degree of uncertainty and, maybe, a sense of wariness, because of what's taken place in recent times. If you’ve got clients who are wondering about or who are interested in R&D Tax, but you’re nervous about it, why not check out this humanisethenumbers.online podcast.Go to your favourite podcast platform and seek out Humanise The Numbers and Mike Dean, and I’m sure you'll get some valuable insights from the discussion. Please scroll down this episode page for the contact information for Mike and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.

Have you ever wondered how you can build greater capacity into your firm so that you free up your people to do more of the higher-value work? In this podcast discussion with Dave and Andy from FD Intelligence, we unpack the value, the power, the simplicity, arguably, of introducing robot process automation into your firm in a deeper way. If you're not already working with it, you should take this deadly seriously. I think this is a profoundly valuable discussion with both Dave and Andy because of the time freedom that it can potentially bring to every accountancy firm – time freedom that enables people to think, enables people to deliver greater customer care and, as a result, builds a greater, more valuable firm. I hope you enjoy and value this discussion as much as I did. Please go to www.humanisethenumbers.online or go to your favourite podcast platform and look out for the podcast with Dave Clough and Andy Guy. Scroll down this podcast’s episode page for the contact information for Dave and Andy and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.

Do you know that feeling you get when you meet someone who's excited about, and who clearly loves, what they're doing, someone who is completely engaged as a leader in running their accounting firm? That joy and enthusiasm is infectious! In this podcast discussion with Jessica Pillow of Pillow May Accountancy, you'll hopefully experience what I did when talking with Jessica – a sense that she loves what she's doing and loves how her firm works, delivering exactly what she wants from leading and running an accountancy business. Now don't get me wrong – Jessica shares some really powerful insights around KPIs, around core purpose and around how that core purpose works for her clients, her team and herself in a deep way. There's something of real value in this podcast discussion. But as much as anything, I hope you get what I got, which was a sense of joy and excitement in talking with someone who loves what they're doing, on a daily basis. I hope you enjoy this podcast as much as I certainly did. You can find it at humanisethenumbers.online, or you can go to your favourite podcast platform and look out for Jessica Pillow. Please scroll down this episode page for the contact information for Jessica and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.

How do you take the customer’s viewpoint of your accounting firm’s service offering from a 'would-like' to a 'must-have' perspective, as when you get to 'must-have' they're more likely to buy more and to pay more because the perceived value is potentially higher? We welcome on this podcast discussion Vangelis Kyriazis, the co-founder and CEO of Syft, builders of a KPI reporting product, now with 150,000 business customers worldwide and working through 3,000 accountancy firms. Vangelis is a chartered accountant who's unpacked what it takes to hold essentially two conversations, the operational conversation about the operations of your client's business and the financial services conversation. Not operations OR finance, but both, because when you do, you build a deeper relationship. Build a deeper relationship and your clients stay loyal for longer, they buy more from you, they recommend you more and are probably more open to higher prices as well. Please join me on this podcast discussion at humanisethenumbers.online or at your favourite podcast platform and see how Vangelis can influence your thinking the way he's influenced mine when it comes to deep operational conversations and financial conversations that build those deeper relationships. Please scroll down this episode page for the contact information for Vangelis and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.

The key question – how do you and your firm make a difference? – makes a difference in the conversations you have with your current team members when it comes to connecting them up with the real meaning behind what you're doing. Making a difference and communicating that will also help you connect with potential future employees so that they're more likely to join your firm rather than another, ultimately making a difference to the business owner clients that you currently work with, as well as to future prospective clients. If these future prospective clients are able to see that you can really make a difference to them and their business, they’re more likely, obviously, to want to work with you and your firm. In this podcast with Mark Walker of VFD Pro, Mark unpacks his experience as a senior financial professional, including his time as a board-level finance officer at Carnival Cruises and his work with The Co-Op, as well as with a number of SMEs.  He has built a product, a tool, that's shown him, his client accountancy firms and their clients how they can make a difference by better connecting. Yes, there is a conversation around the future of their business, and yes, around the finances, but also around the whole business, so that there's a stronger relationship. That's why I think this podcast discussion is so important. I hope you'll take time out to go to humanisethenumbers.online or to your favourite podcast platform to find this podcast with Mark Walker. I’m sure you’ll find it really valuable. Please scroll down this episode page for the contact information for Mark and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.

If you or a loved one is unfortunate enough to need a medical or surgical procedure, chances are you'd prefer, for example, to have a kidney transplant specialist, if you needed a kidney transplant, rather than consulting with a general practitioner or even a general surgeon. On this podcast, Reza Hooda talks about the fact that your business clients would prefer to work with a specialist in their field, their market, their sector, rather than with a generalist. But Reza also makes the point that, ultimately, your business owner clients would much prefer to work with someone who knows them personally in a deep way. The marketers would call it Segment Size One – there's only one person, one business owner, in that segment. As Reza points out, your job as an accountant in a meeting with your clients is to help them see their business in a light that removes some of their concerns, worries and fears about its future, which is why I think this wide-ranging discussion with Reza is such a valuable podcast. I hope you'll take time out to go to humanisethenumbers.online or to your favourite podcast platform and check out this discussion with Reza Hooda. Please scroll down this episode page for the contact information for Reza and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.

As we approached our 100th edition of the Humanise The Numbers podcast, we found choosing someone to invite as the guest a bit challenging. But then we thought, what if we could make a global impact by having the right standard of guest, one that could inspire you, your firm, your team, your clients, maybe, to transform the numbers that really matter in your firm and across your clients’ businesses? And that's why we brought in Mr. Steve Pipe, with whom I had the great privilege of working during the first five years of my career supporting ambitious accountants. Steve speaks in a deep and meaningful way about core purpose and values, about engaging your team, about making a difference on a level that is inspiring, but also challenging, and in a way that’s quite practical. I hope you'll take time out to hear the message that Steve shares and that you’ll take some action off the back of it – this will benefit your team and the commercial results of your firm and it could have a profound and positive impact on your clients as well. And that work could then go on to have a global impact. So please go to www.humanisethenumbers.online to find the podcast with Mr. Steve Pipe, Chartered Accountant, or go to your favourite podcast platform. I hope you find this conversation as stimulating and valuable as my team and I have.Scroll down this episode page for the contact information for Steve and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.