The Unstoppable Accountant - Grow your Accounting Firm

Navigating Entrepreneurship: 21 Vital Lessons from 21 Years in Running Samera my Accountancy Firm

• Arun Mehra • Season 1 • Episode 5

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What's the secret sauce for running a successful business for over two decades? I, Arun, am here to give you a peek behind the curtain with 21 hard-earned lessons from my 21 years of experience running my own firm. There's no sugar-coating, no fluff, just genuine insights and truth bombs from my journey through the unpredictable world of entrepreneurship. From embracing patience as your new best friend, to the art of being selective in all matters of business, and even the importance of enjoying life beyond the office walls, I've got you covered.

As we dive deeper into the realm of entrepreneurship, I will also touch on the significance of always looking forward, diversifying your income streams, and the magic of trusting your gut instinct. You'll learn how to navigate through the sea of both positive and negative people in business, and why it's crucial to ignore the naysayers. I'll also share my love for reading and its benefits, along with the importance of being a true leader to your team. We'll wrap things up with an essential reminder that it's your business, your life, so make sure you love every piece of it. Whether you're a seasoned business owner or just starting out, I assure you, these lessons are going to be game changers. Join me on this enlightening journey where I bear it all, sharing my triumphs, failures, and everything in-between.

Speaker 1:

Hello Aaron here. Now it's 21 years since I started off my firm. 21 years has flown by and today I'm going to give you 21 lessons that I've learned in running my firm. I'm going to keep it nice and short and brief, but hopefully you'll get some ideas and understand from my experience of what's gone well and what hasn't gone so well as well. So the first one is patience. You've got to have patience. I thought I could get things done in a month or a couple of years, but things that you think might take two years take four years or five years. So you've got to have a lot of patience when you're running a business.

Speaker 1:

Number two expect the unexpected. Things never go as you expect. Things that you thought will go really well don't, and things that you don't think are going to go particularly well actually do turn out to be all right. So expect the unexpected. Number three not everyone should be your client. Did you hear that Not everyone should be your client? Some people are great clients, but some people can be the biggest pain in the bum. So you don't really want them in your kind of client base, even when you're starting out, because it just takes up too much time and too much resource of yours.

Speaker 1:

Number four kind of follows on from number three be selective on everything. Be really selective on everything. That means people, people you hire, clients, technology, everything. Be quite selective. Number five, and this is more of a life thing but so important Quite often we're focusing on the goal, but my view is focus on the journey. Really focus on the journey, not the destination. Enjoy the process, enjoy the ups and downs. If you're not enjoying it, you're doing the wrong thing. Really important to focus on the journey.

Speaker 1:

Number six, and this will happen inevitably in business Some people will screw you over. They'll try and put the knife in your back. They'll make your life difficult. They'll try to just be obstinate. You name it. They could be employees, they could be clients. It could be both. It could be suppliers, it could be anyone. However, moving on to the next point, some people are brilliant and some people are just great. They could be employees, they could be team members, they could be clients. So you've got to just expect some good and some not so good people when you're dealing with running your own firm.

Speaker 1:

Number eight price yourself always higher. You can always bring it down if you need to, but my view is don't start cheap. If you start cheap, you're setting a standard and therefore you're going to struggle further down the line. Do not even go down that route. Cannot stress how important that is.

Speaker 1:

Number nine focus on your team, not on your clients. Now I know you might think, oh no, that's really not right. My view is focus on the team because if you get the right team, they'll look after your clients Really really must stress that Get the right team who can support you and they can ultimately support your clients and make sure your team are happy. If they're not happy, then they'll move on and therefore you've got to rebuild again. I've been there, made that mistake not just once, but several times. So really focus on the team. That's what 21 years has really taught me.

Speaker 1:

Number 10, take the holidays. You are the boss, you want the break. You need the break. You can work long hours and it can be quite stressful at times. So you need those breaks and you deserve that. So, number 10, really take those time out, have the holidays, have those breaks.

Speaker 1:

Number 11, always look forward. I say history is only a point of reference. You can learn from mistakes, but look forward, keep going forward. There's goals, aspirations desires that you might have. Look forward and enjoy that process of getting there as well, as I mentioned earlier.

Speaker 1:

Number 12, learn to market properly. I won't stress that more than any further than that, because marketing is a massive area and if you can learn to market, that will grow your business rapidly. Number 13, again, a real life important aspect here is your accountancy firm is important. Of course it is, but your life outside of work, your life outside of your clients, a life outside, outside of your business, is so much more important your family, your friends, your holidays, your charity, work, whatever it may be that get floats your boat, but all of those things are more important than your business. I must stress that because at the end of the day, when you're on your deathbed, it won't be your business that really matters. It's the relationship you've made with the people that actually matter to you in your life. So remember that.

Speaker 1:

Number 14 read, read and read. I've read I don't know hundreds of business books over the years. I've implemented ideas, some have worked, some have failed, but I love that process. I've loved that idea of learning and experimenting and trying new things all the time, and books provide that information to me. Number 15 go with your guts. It's usually right. You can think with your head, you can feel with your heart. But my view and I've learned from experiences go with your gut. Your guts usually right.

Speaker 1:

Number 16 Don't ask your team to do something if you're not going to do it yourself. If you can't do yourself, well, you don't want to do it yourself they will be led by you. You're the leader, remember that. So if you think your team should be doing it, you should. You should be able to show that you've done it before, or you can prove that you've done it before, or you're willing to Get your hands dirty and to help them, whether it's doing a set of accounts or it's whether it's mucking out and dealing with a block toilet. Get yourself that. Understand that his team follows you and they'll be inspired by someone who willing to get their hands dirty themselves.

Speaker 1:

Number 17 focus on what you enjoy. Too many people do everything and, quite often or not, the joy of starting up a firm or running a firm goes when they're having to All the things they don't enjoy. So if you don't enjoy certain aspects, our sorts it to a third party or employ team members to help you, but just focus on what you enjoy. Now, I know at the beginning it might be that you have to juggle lots of balls, but at some point you need to kind of get rid of the things you don't enjoy. Number 18 don't be everything to everyone. You will fail. You cannot do everything for everyone. Focus, remember focus. Don't try and be everything to everyone. 19 diversify your income streams. Make sure you have plenty of income streams in your firm. We have in my firm. We have income streams from payroll to accounts, to compliance, to finance, to practice sales, to a buying group, to I'm sure there's more that I've missed out but to courses and events we run. So I must stress, it's really important to diversify your income streams because one income stream can turn off at some point or reduce at least in if it can be compensated by other Income streams.

Speaker 1:

Number 20 ignore the naysayers. There will always be people out there who'll just try and be negative about your firm or business. It could be loved ones, it could be friends, it could be families, it could be colleagues. So what? Who cares? You focus on your goal and you go for it. Really make it happen.

Speaker 1:

And number 21, and really so important to Remember it's your business, it's your life, so you have to enjoy it. It takes a lot of hard work, effort, to actually run your own business, but at the same time it's your life. You want to enjoy your life as well. So don't make the. Let the business take over your life. Enjoy the life aspects as well. Thanks very much. I hope these 21 tips are really helpful for you if you're in that process of running your firm. I've got the gray hair to Show that I've been doing it for 21 years and I've loved every minute of it, even though what there were times where I thought, oh my god, what am I doing here? Get in touch if you need any help. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank Mike Rex. Thank you, haleẹ. Thank youisses. Thank GBractji for her Hal-Ann.