When we discuss technology in relation to accounting, it seems that there has been a rapid pace of change with technology for years now, and it's only accelerating. And with the advancements in artificial intelligence, perhaps the speed of change will accelerate even more. 

When I interviewed Luke Farren of The Modern Firm recently on the podcast, I felt that Luke's comments about why accounting needs shaking up are certainly worth a listen. 

To hear more, join me and Luke at HumaniseTheNumbers.online or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Please scroll down the podcast’s episode page for the contact information for Luke and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in the podcast.

When someone with an engineering background moves into accountancy, what skills do they bring along with them? 

What struck me in this podcast with Gareth Burton of Assure UK was Gareth's curiosity about the way that accountancy is carried out and the potential improvements to processes that can happen across virtually every part of our business. Gareth has got that down to a tee. 

To listen to more of that and to further useful insights about how and why Gareth set up his firm in the first place, join us at HumaniseTheNumbers.online or where you normally get your podcasts.

Please scroll down the podcast’s episode page for the contact information for Gareth and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in the podcast.

When your background is in the corporate world and in the world of startups, how do you harness that experience when it comes to trying to sell a product to accountants that you know that they want, while sometimes dealing with resistance from the accountants themselves? 

If all of that sounds a curious mix, please join me and Miranda Kendall of Spotlight Reporting on this podcast, where you'll find out the answer to this question and more. 

Miranda talks very passionately about why accountants do what they do and how we can harness that to enable better relationships with clients. And she's also got some really good snippets about how to handle team members. 

I found Miranda a wonderful guest – very passionate about what she does and also very clear and concise about the importance of being present in conversations, whether it's with a client or with a team member. 

If you're interested in finding out more, please join me on humanisethenumbers.online or wherever you get your podcasts. And better still, click the subscribe button if you like it. 

Please scroll down the podcast’s episode page for the contact information for Miranda and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in the podcast.

Occasionally, on our HumaniseTheNumbers podcasts, we're privileged to welcome a guest who has deep, personal experience in a profoundly important aspect of business that is directly relevant to you, your firm and your clients. With John Warrillow, we've got that, plus we've got his extensive research into how to successfully sell a business. 

He's the author of three books – Built to Sell, The Automatic Customer and The Art of Selling Your Business – and in this podcast, John shares insights which can help you change the conversation, become fluent in the conversation – not just the manager of a business conversation, but the owner of a business conversation. These are two distinct and different conversational styles with different questions, different content. 

When you listen to John, you'll receive insights into some of the eight key drivers for improving and increasing the value of your firm. But I think, more importantly, these insights can help you drive or support a conversation with your customers, your clients, so that they can improve the capital value of their businesses as well.

Please join John and I on one of the, I think, most impactful podcasts we have seen, and there have been quite a few of those. I hope you enjoy this discussion with John as much as I did.

When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for John and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.

It can often feel like a particularly growly challenge to work out how to successfully promote and market your accountancy firm. So it pays, don't you think, to listen in to a marketing expert. In this podcast, you'll hear from Zoe Paradine, Head of Marketing in the UK for UHY Hacker Young. Zoe shares her experience of 20 years of marketing for her own firm and, more importantly, her insights on what's key to successful marketing. 

Zoe discusses the need to “make time” – carving out time each week, without fail, to successfully market your firm. She also signposts how to spend that time – building and nurturing lists and building content. 

If you are up for learning ways to successfully market your accountancy firm, I think you'll find this podcast exceptionally valuable.

Please go to humanisethenumbers.online or your favourite podcast platform, including Apple and Spotify, to access the podcast. I hope you enjoy this discussion with Zoe as much as I did.
When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Zoe and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.

How do you create, build and nurture a high-growth accountancy firm? In this podcast discussion with the head of DJH Mitten Clarke, Scott Heath, you'll hear him share a number of detailed insights into how he’s developed his high-growth firm, a firm that’s gone from 30 to 70 people and, in the last two years or so, from 70 to 275 people, in four offices. 

But what stands out most from this discussion with Scott are the principles behind healthy growth, not just growth for the sake of it – growth in which everyone can take great pride and growth that is sponsoring the future success of the firm, as well as generating great financial results now.

I hope you'll be tempted to go to this HumaniseTheNumbers.online podcast and dive into all the little details around the importance of culture and values in underpinning rock-solid high growth in an accountancy firm. I hope you enjoy this discussion with Scott Heath as much as I did.
When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Scott
and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.

How you and your firm deliver great value to your clients is a common theme in the HumaniseTheNumbers podcast series. 

In this discussion with Phil Hobden, now of Wolters Kluwer, I was able to unpack Phil's experiences as a business owner, as well as an employee and leader of education at Capitalise and, previously, at Futrli. 

He shares some amazing insights. The discussion twisted and turned from value for clients and value for team members and how much they're part of a virtual circle. When we, as leaders of our respective businesses, get that value equation right – make it clear, demonstrate it well – we put our firms on that positive path towards reaching our business goals. 

I hope you'll join me and Phil on a fast-moving, action-packed and, I think, content- and value-packed podcast at HumaniseTheNumbers.online.

When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Phil and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.

How would it feel if you and your team in your accountancy firm were able to get to January and feel completely calm, completely relaxed and completely in control around the number of tax returns you've got to do?

Well on this Humanise The Numbers podcast discussion with George from Pinfields in the West Midlands, you'll hear Georgina, George, share some deep, practical and relatively simple but important insights into what she did, what she and her team did, in order to smooth out the flow of tax returns to diminish the normal spike of tax returns in December and January, to less than half what they were when she started on this journey.

George is really generous in unpicking and highlighting the three or four key things that have enabled her to achieve, what has been a quite impressive production workflow methodology within her firm around the production of tax returns. So why not join George and myself on this Humanise The Numbers podcast and see which one of the insights that George shares is of particular value to you and your firm when you next look at planning out your flow of tax returns.

When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Georgina and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast. 

How do you and your managers hold accountability conversations that work really well? By really well, I mean that they work out for both the manager and for the person they’re working with – holding them to account. Never an easy conversation.

On this podcast with Graeme Tennick, you'll hear Graeme share his commitment to his own accountability, as well as how open and transparent he is with his team. He allows them to see that he’s being accountable himself and thus earns the right to hold others in his team to account. I push Graeme on the actual process of accountability, and I think he handles it very well.

But this podcast isn’t just about accountability, it’s about how you work with your clients in a 360-degree, future-focused and past-focused way. You do, of course, deal with the annual accounts, but you’re actually holding conversations with your clients, which they see as being of greater value because they're future-focused. 

Graeme shares brilliantly how he holds those conversations with clients.

There are other great, valuable insights in this podcast, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Graeme brings his Northeastern sense of humour, which makes for an entertaining conversation. So go to HumaniseTheNumbers.online or to your favourite podcast source and seek out Humanise The Numbers and the podcast with Graeme Tennick.

When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Graeme and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast. 

There are very few people who are recognized within the accounting profession, worldwide, us, UK, Europe, Australasia.

Paul Dunn is one of those individuals, he has served the accounting profession for several decades, CEO of B1G1 - Business for Good and he's won several awards.

On this podcast discussion, Paul shares his insights on the value of purpose and the value of values so that you can apply the success of them to your firm.

When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Paul and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast. 

How do you as a leader or manager of an accounting firm connect in a deeper, more meaningful way with your team? How do you ensure that this connection has a positive impact on the way in which team members behave and on their motivation, their drive and their willingness to see your firm succeed? How will this influence the amount and quality of the work they do and the level of care they show for that work?

There’s also a question to be addressed regarding how you connect in a deeper way with your clients, so that they want to work with you more often and take more action based on the insights, guidance and advice you can share with them.

In my conversation with Karen Eber, you'll hear about the importance of the power of stories in connecting in a deep and emotional way with your team, and in a deep and emotional way with your clients, so that you get the results you and your firm deserve. 

Karen talks about how there is power in both data and stories, but connecting data – the numbers – with stories results in greater power and a deeper connection that will make a positive difference to every meeting you have with team members, either one-on-one or as a group, as well as every meeting you have with clients. 

So why not join Karen and I on this HumaniseTheNumbers.online podcast, or go to your favourite podcast platform – Apple, Spotify, Google – and hunt out the podcast discussion with Karen Eber.

When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Karen and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast. 

How do you stay ahead of the game? This is a bit of a generic question, but more specifically, how do you continue to stay ahead of your clients’ expectations? What are they expecting from you, your team and your firm, and how do you stay ahead of that, so that you can constantly deliver value, as well as a magical, rather than miserable, experience to your clients?

Well, on this HumaniseTheNumbers podcast discussion with Charlotte Zacharia of the accountancy firm Z², you'll hear Charlotte share her powerful insights into how clients’ perceptions and expectations have changed and how she and her firm have responded to that. Her observations can perhaps influence the way you think about the way your firm serves your clients. 

So why not join Charlotte and I on this HumaniseTheNumbers.Online podcast discussion and see what you think of Charlotte's views and how you can apply those powerful insights to your firm.

When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Charlotte and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast. 

How does your accountancy firm earn the right to achieve and be comfortable with prices that are three, four, five times or more higher than you would normally charge a typical client? 

In this podcast, which was a great pleasure and privilege to make, we have Ron Baker discussing pricing, the subscription model, niche marketing and positioning, strategy and purpose. I hope you'll take the time to listen to the insights, the valuable gems, that are included in this podcast.

Why not join Ron and I at humanisethenumbers.online or on your favourite podcast platform to discover and take advantage of the insights and valuable strategies that Ron is suggesting could pay off for you and for your firm, for your team and, by the way, for your clients as well.

When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Ron and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast. 

How many firms do you know that have a Chief Impact Officer? Yep, me neither. So, you may want to join this podcast with myself and Graeme Tennick, of Tennick Accountants, as Graeme talks about his role and about how and why it came into being. 

There are a number of standout moments in this podcast, not least when Graeme describes how to have the team really working with purpose, with real meaning in their work, all the time. 

So please join us on the podcast, either via your usual podcast platform or from humanisethenumbers.online. 

Please scroll down the podcast’s episode page for the contact information for Graeme and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in the podcast.

Occasionally I struggle to work out how best to help an accountant or an accountancy firm connect with the real value that they deliver to their clients, especially their business-owner clients.

In this podcast discussion with Stephen Pell, you'll hear Stephen and I unpack the emotional part of the value equation, drawing on Stephen’s knowledge and expertise in his work with music artists.

Stephen and his team of 15 people serve artists primarily in the UK, expanding into the US. And he does a brilliant job of demonstrating how to set up and run a niche accounting firm. But he also has many insights for all accountants, specifically around the importance of building an emotional connection with clients.

So please join me and Stephen at humanisethenumbers.online or on your favourite podcast platform – Apple, Spotify or others – and see what you make of Stephen’s valuable insights.

When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Stephen and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast. 

Don't you think it pays to have a clear picture about what your firm will look like in the future, say, in five years’ time? Your firm of the future? 

In this podcast discussion with Sian Lloyd and Rebecca Johnson from the Cardiff-based firm Lewis Ballard, you'll hear them share how they’ve created a future-focused, advisory-focused, genuinely caring approach to running an accountancy practice, where there's a real human connection between the team and between the team and their clients. They also discuss what they're doing to advance their firm’s value in the eyes of their customers, by getting better at advisory work and at that future focus.

So why not seek out some inspiration for your firm of the future from Sian and Rebecca on this humanisethenumbers.online podcast? I believe you'll be pleasantly surprised by what was a light-hearted discussion, but one with a serious context. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Sian and Rebecca and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast. 

What must it be like to spend 21 years in a firm of accountants, going through the ranks, then deciding to leave and join a technology company?

In this podcast discussion with Paul Lodder of Dext, Paul shares some amazingly valuable insights into his experiences, both in the accounting firm and at Dext, insights which I believe can profoundly influence the way you install and implement technology in your firm. But as the name of our podcast platform suggests, Paul’s insights can also help you Humanise The Numbers in such a way that your firm is capable of winning the game with your team – recruiting and keeping good people – and winning the game with your clients as well, so that you deliver ever greater value and enjoy ever greater profits.

Please join me at humanisethenumbers.online for this invaluable discussion with Paul Lodder.

When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Paul and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast. 

How do you transform your firm’s accounts production workflow so that you free up people's time whilst simultaneously building stronger, more meaningful, more valuable relationships with your clients? 

In this Humanise The Numbers podcast with Vipul Sheth of AdvanceTrack Outsourcing, you'll hear Vipul share insights from the many dozens of firms with which he and his team work, specifically around the magic of one or two profound shifts, or profound little changes, in the way you look at and tackle production workflow, so that you and your firm can free up time for your people and still build stronger relationships with your clients.

I hope you'll enjoy the discussion I had with Vipul as much as I did, and I truly hope that you take on board the messages that he shares.  I'm convinced, and I know because of the experience I have with other firms, that what he's talking about makes absolute sense and will deliver the results that you want for yourself and for your firm.

 When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Vipul and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast. 

It strikes me that one of the most valuable conversations you can have with a business-owner client concerns the exit from their business. When are they going to close it or sell it? How much do they want for it? And how much personally do they want to extract from the business as a result of that? A highly valuable conversation, but one with which many accountants are not entirely comfortable.

Join me on this podcast discussion with Cliff Spolander of Business Optics.  Cliff is a serial entrepreneur, having started, bought, sold and, on occasion, just simply closed 12 different businesses, and who is now helping business owners with their exit planning.

You'll hear Cliff share his insights and the thoughts, processes, strategies and conversations that drove real value into the hearts and minds of his clients and to his businesses, and that you, your team, your firm can use to deliver value for your own clients. 

Please join me at humanisethenumbers.online or go to your favourite podcast source – Spotify, Apple or whatever – and have a listen to what Cliff has to say about exit planning.

When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Cliff and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast. 

How on earth, as a firm of accountants do you manage the ever-increasing workload thanks to new clients, thanks to extra work from existing clients and the fact that it's really tough to recruit more good people into your firm?

And that seems to be getting harder, doesn't it?

On this podcast discussion with Jenny Cessini of Davis Grant in Ilford (a five partner firm with 40 people in their organisation), you'll hear Jenny describe in granular detail how their weekly workflow process helps to marry up and balance the weekly expectations of their clients and new prospective clients too.

Jenny describes the weekly processes that they use to balance the workload amongst the team, get team buy in so that they're better at delivering on the targets that they have set every week and achieve the customer care that they're clearly so passionate about.

So why not please join me and Jenny on this Humanise The Numbers podcast, and hear how it's possible to balance, blend and achieve with the two things that really matter - a fully engaged team and a delighted client bank.

I hope you enjoy the podcast as much as I did.

 When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Jenny and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast. 

I'd be surprised if any accountant would disagree with the fact that client loyalty is the cornerstone of the fees, profits, and capital value of their firm.

Also very few firms would disagree or argue with the fact that the clients that feel loyal to your firm do so because of the quality of the relationship you have with them. 

Very few firms, it seems to me, and in my experience actually track and measure either the quantity or the quality of the client interaction, number of meetings, number of zoom meetings, number of calls etc.

On this Humanise The Numbers podcast, you'll hear David Belbin and I lock horns a little bit.

We talk about Arsene Wenger and about Mike Tyson, and why this is relevant to you and your firm. 
It's relevant, because David brings up a really valuable point I think.

One of his intentions, rather than where he's got to so far, is to build a client score card.

A way of tracking and measuring the effectiveness of the relationship between him and his clients, his team, and his clients.
Check out what David's got to say about the way he and his 24 person firm builds a human interaction with their clients.  How they do it in such a way that they're building the fundamental foundations of great client loyalty and therefore fees, profits and capital value for the future.

 When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for David and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast. 

What does it take for a firm, even a specialist niche firm, to grow substantially, year-on-year, for over a decade? 

In this podcast discussion with Rob Whittall of Dyke Yaxley, USA, Rob shares the insights, ideas and strategies that have helped him grow his firm and build two teams, one in the US and one in the UK. He will also share how his specialist firm helps UK and US businesses, as well as individuals, navigate the complexities of tax across the two countries. 

Join me at humanisethenumbers.online and hear how Rob has grown a really elegant, professional firm, a firm of which he is rightly very proud.

When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Rob and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast. 

How on earth do you and your team, your colleagues, your firm as a whole, engage in meaningful, tangible conversations with clients, demonstrating that your firm delivers real value?

In this Humanise The Numbers podcast discussion with Paul Kennedy of OBK, a relatively small firm north of London, we discover that for decades Paul has been a keen student of Ron Baker, Rick Payne and Bootcamp, and he has implemented an approach to value pricing in a very practical way. 

You’ll hear Paul share his insights and his thoughts about how his firm have implemented value pricing. There's a lot of discussion around value pricing, but Paul reveals the practical ways of delivering value, so that your clients will say: 'oh, that is worth far more than the 10 minutes or 10 hours you've invested in working with me.'

When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Paul and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast. 

How do you grow an accounting firm from zero to a million in 10 years and then set about growing the 1 million pound turnover firm that you've now got into a 2 million pound turnover firm in the next five years or less?

Well, according to Sian Kelly, what you do and what she has done is put client experience and client care front and central in everything this firm does.

And every improvement that this firm makes is towards improving that client care.

I hope you enjoy this Humanise The Numbers podcast.  When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Sian and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast. 

What's it like to start an accounting firm with £200, to grow it quickly over a period of five years, and then to decide to exit? And from the start of that exit conversation to completion, for it to take only 25 days? 

We'll cover all of that and a lot more in this podcast with Laura Taylor from Bright Flamingo. Laura shares how that journey affected her, and she also reveals some secrets along the way that could help you in your own accounting firm. 

If you want to hear more, join Laura and me wherever you get your podcasts, or join us on humanisethenumbers.online. And if you enjoy it, please hit the subscribe button. 

Please scroll down the podcast’s episode page for the contact information for Laura and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in the podcast.

It's a challenging question to ask you how committed you are to the mental well-being of your team.

During tumultuous and trying times it's an important question, and I'm sure you're doing everything you can to facilitate, assist support your team so that they thrive as well as supporting your clients so that they thrive too.

In this Humanise The Numbers podcast discussion with Martin Horton of Rivington Accountants, you'll hear Martin share one or two ways that he's helping his clients thrive. 

But what stands out is his commitment and levels of support, monthly support around the mental wellbeing of his team at an important time.
When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Martin and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast. 

Leading and managing change is tough. The bigger the team, the bigger the challenge. So how do you transform an old style partner led multi-office firm into one that's strategy and corporate led with crystal clear functions, roles, and responsibilities for everyone across the firm - that fully engages with, or is it at least on the journey to fully engaging with everyone in the team?

On this podcast discussion with Marie Pegram of UHY East, Letchworth in Hertfordshire you'll hear Marie share the insights about the journey that UHY East have been on from partner led to strategy/corporate led some of the challenges and difficulties they've experienced on that journey.

And ultimately how vital, how important, how fundamental it has been to put the team first, actually, no balance between team and clients, Marie states plainly, team come first in their development and the change that they've achieved in their firm. I hope you'll join me and Marie, on this Humanise The Numbers podcast discussion, I've found it profoundly insightful.

When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Marie and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.'

Why on earth, would you take a blind bit of notice of a technologist talking about Humanise The Numbers for an accountancy practice like yours? 

Well, over the years, Matt Flanagan from BlueHub has built a reputation for really knowing his onions when it comes to the technology, but because he's helped so many firms install, implement, and habitualise technology across their firms, he sort of knows what differentiates the best firms from all the other firms in the profession. 

So why not join Matt and I on this Humanise The Numbers podcast, and seek out the one or two things that you can implement in your firm, so that you transform the performance of your team, the performance of your firm as a whole, but also maybe even transform the performance of one or two of your clients too.

I hope you get a chance to listen to Matt, I loved the discussion. He's so down to earth, so practical, it's definitely worth a listen.
When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Matt and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.

How does an accountancy firm, how does your accountancy firm master the dark arts of marketing, so that you become successful at generating leads, high quality future clients for your firm, so that you can build your fees, build your profits and build the capital value of your firm?

Well, on this Humanise The Numbers podcast discussion with Mike Crook, you'll hear Mike share his profound and I think amazingly valuable insights into how PracticeWeb have worked with accounting firms over Mike's time in the business as Managing Director and, he essentially unpacks and unlocks some of the insights that drive success in accountancy firms in his experience.

Now, we were privileged to capture Mike, because he was literally a week away from leaving PracticeWeb and joining another company outside of the accountancy profession. So, Mike is really candid, really honest, and it's brilliant that PracticeWeb have given us the thumbs up to share this information, because it's so valuable for the profession, if, assuming you want to grow your accountancy firm. 

One of the key drivers for the future success of your accounting firm is your ability to win new high value clients, new high value work for new clients, as well as certainly cross selling additional services to your existing clients.

Well on this Humanise The Numbers podcast discussion with Jenny Sparks of Cedar and Co in Derby, you'll hear Jenny share her insights from working as a marketeer in a top 10 firm, and then her experiences more recently of working in a smaller sole practitioner firm and what's needed, what's necessary to generate a flow of high quality, high value leads into the firm. Jenny states that in the last 18 months they've identified and won more new client work than they have done in the previous six years.

So she's got some real experience in terms of what works and she signposts the little things, the important things that ensure that Cedar and Co continue to win new, valuable clients that they love and that they like working with.

So why not join Jenny and I on this Humanise The Numbers podcast discussion and work out which one or two things you can take from it and apply to your firm, so that you can bring greater confidence and greater certainty to winning new high value clients for the future of your firm.
When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Jenny and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast. 

How do you Humanise the Numbers in your firm, so that the people in your firm and the clients you work with connect in a much deeper way and as a result, your clients are more sticky, they buy more from you and they even recommend you more than they otherwise would of done?

On this Humanise The Numbers podcast with Vipul Sheth of AdvanceTrack Outsourcing you'll hear Vipul share a number of insights from his many experiences of working with many dozens of firms across the UK and the rest of the world, about the small things, the little things, the valuable things.

Actually, they're not that small, because what we really talk about on the podcast is the obsession that builds in the health and the future success of your firm, which is connected to client relationships.

So why not join Vipul and myself on this Humanise The Numbers podcast and hear what Vipul has to say, what Vipul has seen work in many other firms and see how you can improve one or two things in your firm so that you get the results you want by literally humanising the numbers in your accountancy firm.

When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Vipul and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.   

This is podcast two of five of the ACCA strategy series.

What does an accountancy firm do to make strategy really come to life in their firm?

On this Humanise The Numbers podcast, you'll hear Glen, Phil and Gareth from two different accounting firms talk about what has to happen in their firms so that their vision, their purpose, their values really come to life.

They’ve worked out how to make it mean something to the directors, the team and their clients.
It isn't corporate BS it’s actually happening in their firm.

They're living it.  When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Glen, Phil and Gareth and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.   

How do you brilliantly promote your firm, market your firm, so that you attract and win ideal clients?

On this Humanise The Numbers podcast discussion with Jo Edwards of JE Consulting, you'll hear Jo describe in detail the things that her and her substantial team of marketers do for in excess of a hundred accounting firms.

She's a specialist marketer for accountancy firms. So why not, if you want to grow your firm with ideal clients, join Jo and I on this Humanise The Numbers podcast discussion.

I think you'll find it of significant value to you and your firm.  When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Jo and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.   

It's not uncommon for a firm of accountants to consider the idea of focusing on and marketing to a niche sector, or to even focus on several niche sectors.

But how do you successfully grow a niche-focused accountancy firm?

In this podcast discussion with Carl Reader you'll hear Carl unpack some of the deep, valuable, insightful ways that he and his team at d&t Chartered Accountants have come to dominate the franchise sector, with a significant percentage of their total clients in that particular sector.

So, if you're interested in the power of niche marketing and focusing your firm on a niche, take time out to listen to Carl and I, as Carl reveals the deepest of insights about his approach to his niche and how it's paid off for his firm.  Why not see what you think could and should work in your firm, so that you can get some real value out of listening to this Humanise The Numbers podcast.

It's a fascinating discussion with Carl. I can't believe how generous he was! I hope you get as much out of it as I did.
 When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Carl and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.   

How do you really humanise the numbers in your firm? And by that, I mean, how do you deeply connect with your team and with your clients, so that you transform the results of your firm?

In this podcast discussion with Carl Reader, the first of two podcasts recorded. you'll hear Carl's passion, verve, and zeal for the humanity that he believes is necessary to run a successful accounting firm.

You'll hear his take on the processes and systems that tie him and his team to the work they do with their clients. He also talks about the use of technology but also the importance of making a connection with your business owner clients. 

I hope you'll take a little time out and invest in listening to what Carl has got to say and share around successful firm, d&t.  I'm confident there will be one or two gems, if not more, for you and your firm to take away.

So why not please join Carl and I on this Humanise the Numbers podcast, the first of two podcasts we've recorded together.

When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Carl and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.  

A pressing question that every firm, every leader, every manager, should ask themselves is:  how do you build long-standing trust with your clients and with your team? 

In this podcast with Elinor Perry of Pentlands, you'll hear Elinor unpack 20 years of experience of running her firm – from when she bought in to the business to the garden party with 130 customers on a lawn wishing her every success for the next stage of Pentlands. How do you build that level of trust? 

Elinor shares her thoughts around establishing clear expectations and setting the standard early – how do you get going early with new prospects, so that it creates a foundation of trust that results in recommendations and results in clients paying fees of £6,000 a year or £20,000 a year or more, without any audit involved? 

This is one of those rare podcasts where you get someone's life experience of running a practice in an hour. Clearly, we've not unpacked everything, but it's well worth diving in to see what it takes to establish a business where the team trusts you, where the clients trust you, where the community trusts you, and where you enjoy life as a practice leader. 

I hope you enjoy this podcast with Elinor as much as I did. Head to your favourite podcast platform or go to humanisethenumbers.online.

Please scroll down the podcast’s episode page for the contact information for Elinor and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in the podcast.

In this fascinating discussion I'm talking with Alison Blackler of 2minds.  Alison is a transformational mind coach, speaker and author - what that means is that she supports and helps people work with their minds to transform how they view themselves and the world around them.

As Alison says ' basically anywhere where there is a mind I can pop up and hopefully help them.'  

During the conversation we dive into the strategies, processes and frameworks that you and your team can put in place to manage the difficulties of change in your accountancy firm in a much more effective and personal, if not human way.

It's a revealing, candid and enormously insightful interview.  Do join me on this Humanise The Numbers podcast to hear what Alison has to say.

When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Alison and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.  

What does it take to capture and demonstrate the value you're delivering to your clients?

In this podcast discussion you'll hear from Michael Carthy of Carthy Accountants in Stafford.

Michael talks about the 'value register' they keep for every one of their 300 limited company clients and how he's skilled up his team to ask the goals questions - what do you want to achieve for your business, for your life - even?

This is because Michael and his team are passionate about helping their clients achieve a better life, not just a better business. 

So, what does it take to to get trained accountants to ask business owners - "what do you want for your life ahead?"

Michael's cracked that one!  Every year, for every client, he's captured a 'value register' that shows at least one of the three 'freedoms' that Michael talks about in this podcast discussion.  

The three freedoms they want for their clients around time, time to do what business owners really want to do, the money that enables them to do it and the peace of mind that comes from running a business with confidence and certainty, partly because they've got the right accountancy firm working alongside them.

So why not please join me on this Humanise The Numbers podcast discussion with Michael Carthy.

I hope you enjoy this discussion as much as I have.  When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Michael and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.  

What can you do to grow the commerciality of your people so that they drive the fees, they drive the profits and they drive the capital value of growth in your accountancy firm.

On this Humanise The Numbers podcast discussion with Rob Walsh, you'll hear Rob describe how he grew the commerciality of his team so that he did less, they did more, and they contributed significantly to the growth of fees and the profitability, and ultimately the capital value of the firm too.

Rob's story is an interesting one because Rob progressed in a multi-office multi-partner firm before he realised that he needed to go it alone.  He set his own practice up, grew that to an excess of a million pounds, grew a significant amount of fees from the world of advisory consulting with his business owner clients and then 18 months ago sold that practice onto one of his key managers.

I hope you enjoy the podcast.  When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Rob and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.  

In this Humanise The Numbers podcast interview with Sean Farnell from the six office firm Burgis and Bullock Chartered Accountants in the Midlands,  you'll hear Sean sharing his insights and what and how they ensure enough points of contact between the management team and the production team and the impact, the positive impact it has on their firm.

You'll also hear how lockdown has brought about great improvements in the productivity of their firm.

When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Sean and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.  

In our experience over the last couple of decades of working with Accountancy firms, we have an appreciation that every firm, at some point in their history have experienced the frustrating challenges of a lack of people, a lack of time resource, which holds the growth, the future success of their firm back from what they want.

Sometimes even that lack of people in time resource can undermine the existing performance of the business too.

So what do you do?

Well on this podcast discussion with Glenn Martin of Avery Martin up in County Durham, you'll hear Glenn share a couple of insights and more about what he and his team have done in order to make the key decisions around which clients to work with, which clients not to work with so that it tees up his firm for the future success.  The future goals that he's got for him, his team and his clients.

Join Glenn and I on this Humanise The Numbers podcast discussion and hear Glenn's valuable insights into how he's making one or two key decisions that help his firm grow and prosper and achieve the things he wants for his firm. 

I hope you enjoy the podcast.  When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Glenn and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.  

To what extent have you, your colleagues, your firm been looking at the efficiency, the effectiveness, the productiveness of your accounts and tax teams whilst in the working from home locked down world we’ve been living in in recent times?

Certainly I've been experiencing a number of conversations with a number of firms around time sheets and  as a result I was stimulated by one of those firms to consider having a podcast discussion with several firms on the merits or otherwise of using time sheets.

One of those firms suggested wouldn't it be great if you got the world's expert, Ron Baker involved as well. 

And I thought’ that's a great idea. Let's ask him’, And I did,  And I'm pleased, proud, privileged to say that on this podcast, you'll hear from Ron Baker. 

You'll also hear from three very strong managing partners of accounting firms across the UK, one in the North two in the South.

You’ll hear each of them sharing their experiences of not working with time sheets, working with time sheets. 

And so we've created this podcast called the time sheet tussle, which I hope contributes to your thinking around the merits or otherwise of using time sheets and maybe other ways of driving the effectiveness, the efficiency, the productivity, and therefore, of course, the profitability of your firms.

So please join me the three managing partners and Ron Baker at humanisethenumbers.online.

 I hope you enjoy this very thought provoking podcast discussion.  When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Ron and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.  

Most firms of accountants are working on the transition from being entirely compliance-oriented firms of accountants, to firms that are doing both compliance and advisory. 

Some have got a really healthy advisory part to their practices and have that compliance work taking place as well, but very few firms are advisory only, but Rob Boll in his firm of 30 people called Evoke is dedicated entirely to advisory work. They use a framework and they use the word SCOPE to describe that framework. 

In this discussion, this podcast with Rob, he shares the details around what SCOPE stands for and how effective, how useful, how valuable it is asking questions around that scope framework.  It's this that enables him and his team to have high-value advisory conversations with all of his business owner clients.

Go to humanisethenumbers.online and you'll find the podcast interview with  Rob. 

We believe you'll get a lot out ofthe nitty-gritty detail of how Rob interacts with his clients to ensure that he keeps his 30-person firm growing around exclusively advisory work.
 When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Rob and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.  

How do you and your firm measure the impact you have on your business owners lives, your client's lives. And what difference does that impact have for your clients?

On this Humanise The Numbers podcast with Harvee Pene from Brisbane, Australia, you'll hear Harvee describe the crystal clear way they've worked out how to measure the impact they have on their clients lives and the different it will make to them.

I hope you enjoy the podcast.  When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Harvee and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.  

Nikki and Nigel are rightly proud of the high levels of enthusiasm and motivation their team demonstrate on a daily basis in their firm. They face challenges like all firms face challenges but with their team fully on board with their vision and values, going to work is no chore.

So what are they doing exactly, to create a working environment that creates enthusiasm and zeal in their team? A zeal that is helping them grow quickly and grow profitably!

Check out this Humanise The Numbers podcast and listen to the insights, skills and habits that are creating their success and can help you achieve the similar success...

When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Nicki and Nigel and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.  

I'd be surprised if any accountant, any accountancy firm wouldn't want to work with high-growth, ambitious entrepreneurial business owners.

And that's exactly what Steve Timmis at Sempar Accountants is doing.

In fact. Steve and his team are doing it so well that they're growing fees by between 30% and 50% per annum in recent years and despite only starting the firm in 2016 they will be touching maybe over achieving on fees of a million pounds in 2021.

What's fascinating though, is that Steve puts right at the centre of the growth in fees the team culture they've created within the firm.

So why not join me and Steve on this podcast interview at Humanisethenumbers.online and hear what Steve has to say about what he does and what his team do and how they do it to achieve the sort of growth that they're achieving.

And please, if you get the opportunity, drop me a line and let me know what you think of the lessons you learned from Steve. It's a brilliant discussion. Mostly because Steve is very open and very candid about what they're doing and how they're doing in his firm. 

I hope you enjoy the podcast.  When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Steve and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.  

How must it feel to found and to grow, over a period of almost 40 years, a busy, vibrant firm, from humble beginnings to over a hundred people?

In this podcast with Alan Farrelly of UHY Farrelly Dawe White, based in Ireland, you'll find out how it felt to contend with all of the advances in technology and the other changes that we've seen over the generations, to the point where Alan is thinking of planning for exit.  How does that all feel, that journey? 

You'll find the answers to these questions and more in this podcast, where Alan talks about what it's like to be a people-led firm. He shares what it's like to trust people and get out of their way to allow them to do their jobs properly. 

Go to humanisethenumbers.online or wherever you get your podcasts from to have a listen to this very absorbing podcast with Alan.

Please scroll down the podcast’s episode page for the contact information for Alan and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in the podcast.

How do you reorganise a team of 50 accounts, production people so that they become more focused, build knowledge and skill in a faster, better way and feel a greater sense of 'connectedness' across the firm.

In this podcast discussion with Jason Appel of BKL, a large North London firm, Jason shares insights on the culture of their firm and how they've reorganized this large team of 50 into a set of pods and how that's impacted positively across the firm. 

I hope you enjoy this Humanise The Numbers podcast.  When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Jason and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.  

How do you, as a firm end up with a culture where everyone within the firm holds everyone else to account for the standards of the work they do and the way they behave.?

It's not just a top down accountability.

It's top down, bottom up, side to side accountability because everyone has that drive and enthusiasm and verve for achieving performance standards and behavioral standards that everyone in the firm holds dear.

Join me on this podcast interview with Neil Ballard and Rachel Barry of Lewis Ballard, a 24-person, two-office firm in South Wales.
Neil and Rachel also happen to be father and daughter. 

Hear exactly how they have created this culture of accountability thanks to some monthly routines around team feedback.

Hear also about the impact 360-degree feedback has had on Neil, the managing director and how they connect in a stronger, deeper, more emotionally, valuable way with their clients because of their approach to a communication strategy, which I think you'll find fascinating.

So please join me, Neil and Rachel, on this HumaniseTheNumbers.Online podcast.

I look forward to hearing and hopefully reading your feedback on this fascinating and I think really valuable discussion.

 When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Neil and Rachel and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.  

What do you have to do in your firm to ensure that what you invest in the strategic thinking, the strategic hard work pays off for you as a business owner, your team and your clients as well?

Join me on this Humanise The Numbers podcast discussion with Emily and Stephen. And you'll hear them describe the merit, the value, the payoff associated with clarity around strategy for them.

Both of these firms are niche firms, one is in the music entertainment industry the other is in the building CIS arena and they talk eloquently about the focus they have for their firm and what the key trends and the things stable in time that show up in their particular sectors.

And then they elaborate on the key trends and the things that are stable in time within the accountancy profession so that you can get a real insight into two aspects of strategy. Trends that are inevitable and the things that are stable in time, the foundations of great strategy. I hope you get some real value and practical insight from the discussion with both Emily and Stephen, enjoy the podcast.

 When on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Emily and Stephen
 and to find additional resources mentioned in the podcast.