Offering clients strategic business advice can elevate your business.
A few years ago, Tony Dimitriadis felt his accountancy firm AD Partners was simply “coasting”. Despite steady business, it wasn’t reaching its full potential or meeting the evolving needs of clients.
“Small business owners, our main clientele, needed more than just tax returns and activity statements. They wanted advice on improving their trading position and cash flow, and how to make their business better,” Dimitriadis says.
“I realised we had to incorporate advisory services into our offerings.”
Dr Lena Wang, Co-Director at the Centre for Organisations and Social Change (COSC) at RMIT University, says businesses across all sectors are facing the same conundrum: how to react and adapt to evolving client demands in a way that feels seamless.
“The only certainty is uncertainty,” she says. “Every industry is experiencing huge changes. To stay relevant, we need to embrace a mindset of continuous improvement and opportunity-seeking.”
Here are tips from Dimitriadis, Dr Wang and principal psychologist Rachael Palmer on how to manage change in a way that benefits both your clients and your organisation.
1. Reskill and upskill
Once you’ve identified new opportunities, business owners must decide where they need to upskill.
“You have to understand your organisation’s unique skills and capabilities and identify where you can expand and where upskilling is necessary,” Dr Wang says.
For Dimitriadis, his planned transformation meant upskilling his accounting and administration teams. He also followed the Key Person of Influence Accelerator program by Dent Global, which shows people how to become more visible and valuable.
“It showed me how to shake up the business,” he says. “We re-organised our services into gold, silver and bronze packages, offering compliance bundled with advisory services on a fortnightly, monthly or quarterly basis, which cover strategy, forecasting, budgeting, KPIs, even human resources and marketing,” he says. “It’s an annual service agreement paid monthly; a model that also helps us forecast our cash flow.”
2. Invest in new technology
Technology has supported the change at AD Partners. “We totally redesigned our processes and built a complete tech-stack that enables us to more efficiently communicate and manage our clients’ financial reporting and business advice requirements,” says Dimitriadis.
The stack includes Ignition for engagement proposals, Xero Practice Manager for workflow, FYI Docs for communications and document management, Spotlight for reporting, and NowInfinity for corporate compliance.
3. Engage with customers
Dimitriadis puts out content offering business advice a few times each week on LinkedIn.
“Once we engage with clients, we add their contacts to our CRM,” he says. “Then we can connect with them through monthly emails that we send out using HubSpot.”
Rachael Palmer, principal psychologist at Transitioning Well, a workplace mental health and wellbeing consultancy, reinforces the importance of helping clients understand the rationale behind new offerings.
“By ‘joining the dots’, you ensure that there are no surprises; clients will recognise that the changes are a direct response to their evolving needs,” she says.
4. Support your staff
You also need to ensure staff understand the reasons for changes, Palmer adds.
“If changes are sudden or unexpected, they can be unsettling, and employees may blame their manager,” she says. “However, if everyone is united in addressing new challenges, the dynamic is much more positive.”
Effective change management involves consultation, open conversation and involving staff as much as possible, according to Palmer. Articulating the rationale for change and seeking input and engagement from those impacted provides them with a sense of control.
“Discuss how the changes will impact their work, job demands, time management and role clarity, essentially taking everyone on the journey,” she says.
Dr Wang agrees people need support through change. “Human nature gravitates towards maintaining the status quo and stepping outside that comfort zone can be daunting,” she says. “It’s important to let staff consider what they excel at, how they can contribute to the new offering and ways they can upskill, helping them expand their comfort zone to embrace the change.”
5. Take your time
Implementing change too quickly can lead to burnout and overwhelm, rendering the change unsustainable. “You don’t need to redefine your business in three months to stay relevant,” Palmer says. “Taking things slowly allows for more consultation and engagement, enabling cultural shifts that help people adapt. You want to retain your best talent.”
She also recommends regular strategic discussions within organisations.
“Regularly discuss where the organisation is headed, gather employees’ thoughts, and identify their strengths to manage change,” she says. “Make these conversations a core part of your organisational culture.”
Dimitriadis believes adapting to evolving customer needs is “absolutely critical” for future success.
“If we’re not going forward, we’re falling behind,” he says. “We need to understand what’s happening in the economy, the community and in the industries we’re working in. When we understand our clients, we can put strategies in place to help them.”
The transformation at AD Partners hasn’t just benefited the clients, he adds. “Beyond client benefits, this transformation has significantly increased our own satisfaction, enthusiasm, and passion for our work.”
More information on the IPA’s website about how to use digital marketing to attract new accounting or bookkeeping clients HERE.
