I was inspired to write this article from a post that I saw on Linkedin.
In the post, the question was asked:
What’s your view as to the correlation between accountants in practice and those who are good business people?
And the response was mixed.
Here’s what I think…
There are plenty of practice owners out there who are incredible business owners, no doubt about it.
Most of the time, these are the ones who have also stopped being ‘accountants’ so to speak.
But I also that that lots of practice owners deny themselves the opportunity to become good business owners.
They spend so much of their time wearing the ‘accountant’ hat (which is often what they’re comfortable with and enjoy doing) that they very rarely have time to master the skill-set associated with being a good business owner.
It comes back to the old working IN, working ON balance. Without the right amount of time spent working ON, you’re never going to develop the skills you need to become a good business owner.
So, what exactly is a ‘good business owner’?
For me, a good business owner is someone who has built (or is building) a self-reliant team of people, along with a blueprint of different systems and technology.
It is from the team using these systems that money is generated for the business owner.
It’s worth noting here that lots of practice owners don’t operate like this.
In their case, it is from the practice owner trading their time, that money is generated…
What are the skills of a ‘good business owner’?
Their skill-set might include:
- Effective leadership
- Team-building
- Marketing
- Sales
- Customer Service
Of course, there are many more skills. But if you were to master the ones above, you would definitely be a ‘good business owner’.
How can you become a good business owner?
Becoming a good business owner is a journey…
You can’t buy this stuff.
You can’t attend a seminar or webinar and suddenly you’ve got it.
You have to earn your stripes.
And more often than not, this journey can be uncomfortable.
There are obstacles and challenges along the way, which is where most practice owners who dare to break out fall down.
They venture outside of their ‘accountant’ bubble, and for some reason something happens, or something goes wrong, and they default back to their comfort zone, fingers burnt, unwilling to try again.
But you have to keep going.
Making mistakes and learning from them (fast) is part of the journey and skill set to becoming a good business owner.
Carve out the time in your diary, stick with it, and earn your stripes.
Because when you do, your business will look very different to what it does now.