The Unstoppable Accountant - Grow your Accounting Firm

Vision and Mission Statements for Accountants: How we did it

• Arun Mehra

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In this episode, Arun and Chris look at how we at Samera developed our vision and mission statements, why they're important and how we use them to develop our business strategy.

Speaker 1:

Hello everyone, welcome to the latest episode of the Unstoppable podcast. I'm Chris O'Shea and again I'm joined by Aaron Mirror. Hello, aaron.

Speaker 2:

Hello Chris, how you doing.

Speaker 1:

I'm good. Thank you very much. Right, so today everyone we're talking about vision and mission statements. This is lesson two of our course on Grow your Accountancy Firm, and today we're going to talk about how we developed our mission. How we developed our mission, how we developed our vision and how that kind of informs how we've built and grown Samara Global. So I might as well start off by just reading out our vision and mission statements so you kind of get an idea of where we're coming from. So the vision is that we envision a world where accountants are empowered to build better businesses, realizing their dreams while driving economic growth and prosperity. And the mission is to empower the world's accountants to build a better business. So we use educational resources, consultancy, we provide the tools, everything accountants need to start, build and grow their firms. So we provide personnel, software, resources. The idea is to help accountants shoulder the burden and smooth, ensure smooth operations and essentially become financially free. That's our goal.

Speaker 2:

So lofty aspirations.

Speaker 1:

Eh so yeah it's a it's a big job, but I think we're, uh, I think we're doing it quite well we're on the one, the path, we're on the path to doing it so exactly so let's talk a bit about how we came to these decisions and how we realized what we wanted to do in the world.

Speaker 1:

So how did we define our long-term goals and our aspirations for the firm? What made you decide to not just do accountancy for dentists, as we've done for decades, but to really move into the support sphere, the educational sphere, to help accountants grow? What kind of informed that decision for us?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, great question. Honestly, I think when I started off my firm, well many years ago, there was no one to teach me. You'd try and find stuff out, you'd try and look online, you'd try and get resources from institutes and various places. There was nothing really there. So the last 20 years has all been self-taught and over the last 20 years there really isn't much. And I've made every mistake possible, chris, okay, and I'm sure I'll continue to make mistakes, but it's those mistakes that actually give you the experience, to give you the gray hair and you learn. And what made then make that transition to say moving from just servicing clients directly to actually servicing accountants. Was that, well, I I I don't think everyone else should learn the hard way that I did okay and I felt that, okay, I can share my experience, my knowledge, and perhaps provide a shortcut to for many accountancy firms for them to achieve their aspirations and goals okay.

Speaker 1:

So long-term goals and aspirations are really just to provide that knowledge, support, expertise and basically make make the mistakes so that other accountants don't have to they can learn correct.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, learn from my mistakes. Okay, I've made plenty like, and, I think, learn from experience. Okay, and I think, um, there's a lot of, there's a lot of noise out there on social media there's no doubt about it and this is my kind of take on. Well, trying to cut through the noise and provide my viewpoint and from someone who's been there, done that, got the t-shirt, um, and done it for many years, okay, um, I'm not saying I have all the answers, far from it. Okay, and I'm happy to learn, and even today I learned from one of my much younger members in the team. But I think nothing, nothing beats experience in business and if I can share my experience to other people, that's kind of my aspiration okay, what would you say is the core purpose of?

Speaker 1:

okay, what would you say is the core purpose of? Um samara global in general? I mean, is it support? Is it help education? Is it um helping people become financially free? Um, what do you say is the core guiding principle of?

Speaker 2:

samara. I think financially free is a nice term that people use, but maybe it's a bit overused, to be honest with you, I think. I think it's it's for people to identify and then ultimately enjoy what they're doing. Okay, yeah, and really kind of um, running a business is hard work. Okay, running a firm is hard work and you're dealing with all the ups and downs with clients, team members, all these, all these types of things. But if I can provide not necessarily a shortcut, but experience and guidance to people, that's kind of my core purpose really. And it's a great question. I think my core purpose is to help, ultimately help others. Okay, for them to achieve their goals. If I can help people achieve their goals, then that's kind of my aspiration really.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's lovely. Um, so the story behind how we created the vision and mission statements I mean I could answer this. It's essentially aaron and I sat down and basically just hashed out where we want samara global to go. Um, we've been working together for years on samara dental accountants. Um, kicked off samara global and obviously the vision and the mission is different for an accountancy practice that focuses on dentists and healthcare sectors in the UK to a global offshoring and support network essentially Samara Global. So, yeah, we essentially sat down, we hashed out where we wanted Samara Global to go, what we wanted to achieve, achieve and kind of crafted that into a statement.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I think, if you, when we, when they started off Samara Global, it was all kind of talking about providing personnel, offshoring and that type of thing, but I think it's evolved really, oh yeah, and it's and it's coming around to the whole full thinking of, firstly, educating people, okay, on how to grow their firms. Now, offshoring is one element of that, okay, but it's so many other elements. It's how to handle clients, how to communicate with clients, how to market to potential clients, how to do seo you name it. All of these aspects which all contribute to growth. Okay, offshoring is one of the services that we definitely provide to accountancy firms, but there are other things that we're looking at now, such as seo support, um, educational training, community building, that type of thing.

Speaker 2:

So I think, where we started off at we had a kind of idea, but the vision has come clearer, honestly. Honestly, by going through it, and that's what I've learned from experience in life the more you dive deeper, the more clarity you'll get. Well, sometimes you get confused. First, you get more confused and you become overwhelmed oh my God, what's this, what's that? But then eventually you emerge from that kind of sea of um information and confusion to actually get clarity and okay, actually this is what we want to do, this is where we're going, so it's actually exciting yeah, I mean even just having this conversation making me realize the biggest guiding principle um of all this, it really is support.

Speaker 1:

Because, again, it started out samara global. We tried offshoring ourselves. It didn't work. We realised we could do it better. We could help people in the way we wanted to be helped, and that support that we wanted to provide really grew from just offshoring and helping running operations to really supporting processes and just kind of every aspect that we anything we know about. We want to try and help people and support them to learn to do it themselves, um to improve their businesses, um correct.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think a great, a great example here, chris, is where we've we were trying to do offshoring okay, we're getting clients for offshoring, but then we had indian firms, our potential competitors, reaching out to us saying I don't know, can I, can you help me with some clients? And it came very evident to me quite relatively early on is that they all want, they want, they want clients, they want help, and my view is that the market is so vast and so huge. Is that? Well, I'm quite happy to help them, to be honest with you, because not all clients are going to be right for me. So, hence, what's come out of this whole experience in the last what six months or so? Is that right? We're now developing content to actually help Indian firms.

Speaker 2:

Our direct competitors understand the UK market, understand the uk market, understand the us market, understand how to market to to western firms, and there's no greater pleasure than that. To be honest, when you can help a fellow professional, okay, will they take some of my market share? Maybe they will. Am I bothered? Not particularly okay? Um, if, if we can all help the industry rise and become better, we're all going to benefit from it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we're going to benefit it's one of the things that really kind of sets smera global apart, in my opinion, that we've kind of got our foot in both camps. For most people, you're either an accountant and you're trying to bring in clients who need accounting work, or you're an influencer who maybe was an accountant once upon're trying to bring in clients who need accounting work, or you're an influencer who maybe was an accountant once upon a time or just knows a lot about it, and you're trying to sell that knowledge.

Speaker 1:

You're trying to teach people, um and it's very rare anyone tries to do both, because yeah, yeah, you're trying to get clients and, on the other hand, you're teaching your competitors how to get your clients yeah, correct, and you know what I do wonder sometimes.

Speaker 2:

I'll be honest with you, sometimes it'll be easier just to do focus on one thing. Okay, yeah, but I can only really shout, sell the experience and sell the education and sell the knowledge, because I actually I'm actually doing it myself. Yeah, okay, if I was just trying to be an influencer or whatever, then honestly, what do I know? But things change, it's always changing in the sector, okay, so so you have your finger on the pulse, so you.

Speaker 1:

So my view is to you got to do both to be able to actually talk, talk, talk the talk and walk the walk as I say so, and that really does kind of perfectly highlight how um your goals and your vision really influence and inform your mission. Cause if we just wanted to be accountants and get loads of clients and kind of dominate a sphere, that's what we would go for. If we wanted to just teach, that's what we would go for. But I think at the heart of Samara, it isn't just teaching, it isn't just doing, it's both we want to, it's a combination.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we want to be accountants.

Speaker 1:

We want to kind of elevate everyone else as well.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think you're right, and this is actually quite interesting to talk about, because I suppose I look at everything very simplistically, but it's kind of like a Venn diagram. Okay, you've got two circles and in the middle is that sweet spot. One circle is education and learning and the other circle is the kind of delivery and operation and accounting side of things, and most firms just focus on one bit. What we're trying to do is provide the whole solution and with that bit in the middle and the Venn diagram, is it hard to do it? Yeah, of course it's hard to do it. But, um, is it hard to do it? Yeah, of course it's hard to do it. Um, but is it actually? Is it? Is it enjoyable to do it?

Speaker 1:

god, I love it, I love, I love that challenge that comes with it, and that's, that's the exciting thing about it yeah and that's the next point I was going to make actually that I mean, and this really should be how, um, all businesses not just accountants kind of develop their vision and mission. It wasn't just a business decision to do this. This really is. I mean, I've known you for a long time now. This is one of your core values as a human being, and I think that's really important for other accountants and business people generally just to understand that the vision and mission of your business isn't just a business decision of your business isn't just a business decision, it's not just a business strategy, it's the business, the company, the world, the life you want to build correct is that the be the change.

Speaker 2:

Who you are is what your dna is, chris, and what, what kind of what, how you want to be portrayed out there, in the wider market, in the wider world. Um, I don't really see myself as an accountant. Yeah, we sell accountancy services. Am I a good accountant? I have no idea if I'm any good or not any good, to be brutally honest with you, but what I enjoy is sharing my experience, sharing my knowledge to other accountants, other firms, um, and my experience, I think that's that's what it is. I think every mistake I've made I've learned from and I can share that now.

Speaker 2:

I encourage other firms and other owners to do things differently as well, and I think that's so important. It's such a well-trodden, traditional way of running an accountancy firm Throw that book out the window, do it differently, do it how you want to do it. I've certainly done that over the last 20 years. Has it been easy? No, it hasn't.

Speaker 2:

Has there been times when I think, oh, my god, why am I doing this? Yeah, 100 have been loads of times. But I, but I'm, I'm, I'm correct, I'm the. I kind of I'm in charge of my own destiny, I feel when I run my firm um, and I'm surrounded by a wonderful team as well that can support that. Okay, and it doesn't happen with just me. It happens with people like you, chris, and others. So, um, so, I'm very privileged to be in that position to do it. But there are times when you think, oh my god, what have I done? What have I done? What have I chosen? And I'm and I know there are times when you hear me talking to you think, oh my god, he's got another do. That was, that was this morning.

Speaker 2:

I know that yeah, it was so, um, but that's what makes it exciting, and we're constantly evolving and constant. That's the thing. Constant change. This, this firm, is all about constant change. Yeah, um, if you want a sedate, normal, normal accounting firm in inverted commas, um, we're not. That I can tell you that. Now, we're not traditional. I'm a firm believer in evolving and changing, and it's that chameleon like experience. Okay, we're always trying to improve. Now, when you're trying to improve, sometimes you don't, you take three steps back as opposed to going forward, but that's part of the process.

Speaker 1:

That's, that's what I love, that's what I love about it and that's really important for people to understand that your vision and your mission again, they're not just business decisions. They're a reflection of who you are as a person. So if, if, what you want is security, stability and just a business that ticks along, there's nothing wrong with that and and that is your vision and mission and that's what you will buy into as a business owner. But who you are as a person and what the kind of business you want to develop, that's really what you need to buy into in your vision and your mission, and that's going to be different for everyone, but everyone needs to be honest with themselves about it.

Speaker 2:

Sorry to interrupt but it will be, but I think you about it. Sorry to interrupt but it will be, but I think you know, when you find your true calling or true passion, then you really put your efforts into it. If you're just trying to run an accountancy firm and make the maximum money and and that's it, I, I could have done that many years ago, yeah, and I could change and reduce certain costs and make more money than a bit, it's never been about the money. To be honest with you, chris. Um, it's about trying to do something different. Okay, and create something much more of a legacy. Now the money does come, okay, as a byproduct of it at some point, because you're doing things differently, and that's what I enjoy the most. If I, if I, was just following what everyone else is doing, then you're on, you're on, you're on. That wasn't for me no, absolutely like I.

Speaker 1:

I've known you for a long time now. I know that more than most. Again, I've worked for six, maybe seven years now. How do we communicate that vision and that mission to not just our clients but the team as well? We at Samara Global we know what we're looking for. We know exactly where we want to go, who we want to be, but for new team members, for client, new clients, for clients we haven't found yet, but we're trying to get in, how do we really communicate that? Yeah, that's, that's an interesting question.

Speaker 2:

So for new team members, we kind of have an onboarding process. Is there room to improve it? A million percent, yes, okay, for our team. Now we have a team globally, so it's getting more and more complicated. People sitting all across india, in the uk, in spain, all over the place, um, and I'm sure we'll get more team members joining soon.

Speaker 2:

So it's important that we communicate on a regular basis. So I'll give an example my india team. I'm talking to them regularly, even though I'm based here in the uk. We have weekly calls. Um. We'll be as a global, as a uk team again, we have regular teams updating people on communications and what we're doing. Um, one of the things we want to do is have more regular town hall meetings so everybody globally is on it and I can just kind of share an update with people.

Speaker 2:

Um, so that's kind of how we communicate it, I think. Have I got it right so far? I don't think I have. Okay, I think I have to improve on that. There's no doubt about it, and that came clear to me when I just came back from India very recently, thinking, well, these guys are sitting here in different time zones and it's great seeing them in person, but how do I communicate and understand that all the team members are in sync? All the team members dotted around the world are kind of understanding what we're trying to achieve and where we're trying to go, and I think that's something I need to certainly improve on myself.

Speaker 1:

I know, yeah, it was certainly a lot easier years ago, especially before covid, when I mean samara was in an office. Yeah, a dozen of us on a busy day in one office yeah. So everyone was tight-knit, everyone. There was one vision, one goal. Everyone was kind of involved because you could hear everyone talking about it from room to room, it was that small. But yeah, now that it's a global process and it's a global operation, um it brings just different challenges.

Speaker 2:

It brings different challenges, but it's exciting. And if I can influence in a positive way people sitting in different parts of the world, um to help them, which ultimately will help them achieve their goals, then then if, if my, if my vision helps, if they, if they are, if they buy into my vision and understand what we're trying to achieve and I buy into their vision, help them to succeed, then it's a win-win yeah, I mean, one of the things I think we do do very well is I mean, everyone I speak to who works in big corporations, even small operations.

Speaker 1:

They essentially get told at team meetings, at town halls right, this is what we're doing. Go away and do it. Here's your new role. Love it or lump it. But I can't remember the last time you came up with an idea and just implemented it. You always ask people right, guys, I've got this idea, what do we think? Or I've got this vision, this is the goal I want to get to. How are we going to get there? There's one thing I think we do very well we really get the team on board with things not just how we do it.

Speaker 2:

I hope so, I hope so, I think, I hope, I hope so, I think I think um like when we're going to do it.

Speaker 2:

Everyone seems to be involved in kind of every asset and it's also one thing I enjoy doing is identifying team members who I think have got potential okay and then pushing them beyond their boundaries, to be honest, with you saying that you can do this, give it a go, okay, learn from it, identify what their strengths are and then playing to their strengths, and I think that's an important aspect of running a firm. Running a company, um. I've identified people here in the uk and in india saying that and, before they know, they're kind of, oh my goodness, I did this, I can't believe it, you pushed me, and that, to me, is honestly, the most rewarding thing. Okay, when I see someone grow as an individual, um, that that's.

Speaker 1:

That's priceless, yeah, priceless no, I know exactly what you mean. I mean I on a personal level. I mean I started at Samara six, seven years ago just doing the social media and I bought into the vision really quite quickly and now I'm head of marketing because yeah, you're still going, mate You've got a long way to go.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I know, I know it's brilliant. It's brilliant and I appreciate it because I think, because you're usually one of the key drivers for me on that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's about pushing you but also identifying. Let's try this, let's experiment. I think one thing I perhaps on my degree before I went into this whole kind of space of finances is engineering, and it's all about experimentation. Engineering, you, you keep basically my job, as my business is to keep trying to break it all. Right, yeah, um, that's what an engineer does try and break it to its, to its limits, and then hopefully rebuild it in a stronger way. And that's how I've run my business for the last 20 years. See where I can break it to a point where it doesn't break but almost breaks. I know it sounds completely warped, but you can rebuild it in a way that's even stronger, better, more efficient, smartest, quicker, faster, etc. Okay, and that's even stronger, better, more efficient, smarter, quicker, faster, et cetera. And that's how you build an engineering product.

Speaker 1:

One of the phrases we throw around the office a lot is whenever someone comes up with an idea, it's not. Will it work? Is it profitable? It's usually. Is it worth testing? And if yeah, that's worth giving a go. Like I said, it's not going to break the business, it's not going to bankrupt us, so correct let's try it.

Speaker 2:

There have been times when I've pushed it quite close to the edge, but but that's. But that's how you grow. That's how you grow. You only grow in those times when you push yourself to the edge, okay. Otherwise you're just kind of trundling along and it's like it's, it's, it's not, it's not exciting.

Speaker 1:

To be honest, as an entrepreneur, you need to be pushing yourself to the limit it really is one of the things again I think sets us apart from other people in the sphere, not just for samara global, but samara dental as well. Because, again, it's how many accountants start off in an accountancy niche like dentistry, but then add finance brokers, then add dental practice sales, then add digital marketing services, then essentially went from an accountancy service to testing things until it I mean, especially with the buying group became a one-stop shop. I mean, you need something to do with private dentistry. If we don't do it, we know someone who does. Um, and yeah, it was that testing, it was growth and yeah, just help because, again, like, we own and run our own dental practices, so helping other dentists build better dental practices, not just do the accounting for it could have been detrimental to our business.

Speaker 2:

Correct, it's like the same thing. It's exactly the same thing as the Samara Global. Now we're helping other dentists. It's competitive, but you know what? The world's a big place. We can help other people. Um, and I'd rather live in a world where we're actually supporting each other rather than trying to kind of pull each other's eyes out. What's the point of that? It's just like the world's too. It's too messy already. Let's try and support each other and there's enough for everyone to benefit from yeah, there are enough parts together yeah, there's enough business out there.

Speaker 2:

It's just kind of support each other.

Speaker 1:

It's a lovely world otherwise especially in the last uh, like last 10 years or so, like standard office jobs are kind of declining, especially amongst like gen z and, one day, gen alpha. Like they want to be entrepreneurs, they want to own their own businesses, they want to start their own. I mean my generation. When we were that age, it was all about just getting an office job. Like no one really wanted to, unless you were a tradie. No one wanted to start their own business. No one wanted to take that risk. But so many people now trying to start small businesses, trying to be sole traders, trying to be entrepreneurs there's going to be even more out there in the next five.

Speaker 2:

I totally agree with you. I think that it's only an upward trend. Yeah, um, but again, I think people just have to have a clear as it goes back to the vision what they're trying to achieve, what's their passion, what's their goal. And if they have that clarified, then they'll. They'll succeed, okay, um, even if it's a bumpy ride. But they've got to have that clarity of thought of what they're trying to achieve and it might not come a clear, it might not be clear immediately, it might take years to get that real clarity. In my case, it's an evolving piece of getting clearer and clearer, but as I've got older and more experienced, you realize, okay, this is what I really enjoy, this is what I want to do, this is how I want to support and this is, um, how I want to take my business forward yeah, that's probably the key takeaway from all this for um listeners.

Speaker 1:

if you want to build your own, well say, if, when you build your own vision and mission statement, it isn't just about writing something for your about page on your website that sounds a little bit fancy that you can imagine seeing on one of the big forwards websites. It's about being genuinely honest with yourself about who you are, where you want to be and what kind of business you want to build and what kind of business you want to build and what kind of world you want to shape, Putting that into words and really taking it on board to help develop your own business strategy, because, I mean, it's so easy to try. Our vision is to be a great accountant and help our clients and be profitable and be excellent.

Speaker 1:

You have to be really honest with yourself about what you want to achieve and how that is going to be shown in and be excellent. You have to be really honest with yourself about what you want to achieve and how that is going to be shown in your business strategy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's incredibly important, totally right.

Speaker 1:

Right, I think that was a great conversation. I think that's covered kind of everything about well, I mean, in as much as you can in 25 minutes. Sure, that is a nutshell of Samara's dental and global our vision and mission and hopefully that kind of gave you a bit of a more an understanding about not just how but why you need to shape a vision and mission statement, why they're important and how they need to influence your everyday decisions in your business, cause they're way more important than most people think.

Speaker 2:

They're not a caveat yeah, and I think, just to kind of finalize on that point, I think it's it's important to have that clarity of thought and, as you said, you can put it on a piece of paper and stick it on a website, but the key is being true to yourself from the heart. Okay, from the gut, what, what is it you want to achieve? What you want to do? Ultimately, what's your why, as they it's quite often so what's your why? And then, and communicate that out there and put yourself out there and be willing to be kind of um, people to kind of slate you or be disrespectful, whatever, it doesn't matter. Okay, just be who you are, be who you are. If you're, if you are being true to yourself, that'll start to shine through and that's when things will start to happen in a really, really exciting and positive way yeah, absolutely right.

Speaker 1:

Well, I think I was. I think I went. That was a really good summary of what we're trying to achieve here. Um, yeah, and hopefully it'll help you, um, define and explain and inform what you're trying to achieve in your business yeah, I, I hope so too.

Speaker 2:

Thanks, Chris. Thanks for today.

Speaker 1:

Thank you very much, everyone, join us next time. Next time we'll be looking at assembling the right team, what to look for, how to find them, that kind of thing. So we look forward to seeing you again, cheers.