These are turbulent times in business. As a result, many business owners are reassessing their options faced with challenging trading conditions, a differently motivated audience, not to mention costs and supply chain issues.
With this in mind, it’s hardly surprising that so many entrepreneurs are turning to business mentors and coaches to help them understand and establish a new direction for their business.
What type of business support do you need?
The UK sector for business advice is vast, currently offering around 45,000 different options.
Before you browse the web or trawl your network for likely places to find a business coach or a business mentor, have a considered look much closer to home.
Your accountant should already be a close business adviser. They could, however, perform a business mentoring role in a way you haven’t yet fully appreciated.
They should be a prime source of business advice. Accountants know the business from the sharp end of the balance sheet and profit and loss account.
If you’ve not already tapped into your accountant’s potential, now could be the perfect time to have a chat.
Why your accountant can be an excellent business mentor
Your accountant can (and should)
- Naturally fall in with long-term planning
- Empathise with you and your business journey
- Help you build and follow a strong business plan
- Tell you the story of your business through numbers
- Provide accountability
- Take you beyond the emotion of running your own business
If you don’t think your current accountant is that sort of accountant, or you’re not getting what you need from them, give some thought as to whom you can work with.
Asking for help is not a sign of weakness!
If you’re embarrassed that you don’t fully understand how to read your balance sheet and can’t connect the various threads of sales forecasts, cashflow, profit and loss to see the complete picture, now’s the time to speak out.
Any decent accountant will happily explain everything you should know. The way they handle this speaks volumes about your working relationship, both now and in the future.
If that’s where you are, you’re certainly not the first and won’t be the last business owner in that position!
What does a business mentor do?
The role of a mentor is to create a plan to get a business from A to B more efficiently.
When we say plan, let’s stop a moment to look at what that means?
You may have slogged over an in-depth business plan when you first started your business. These typically include everything from describing the rationale behind your new logo to how and when you’ll move your business out of the family home into your first premises.
This type of plan is typically put together for obtaining funding, grant sources, start-up finance and banking.
Hours go into writing them, only to be filed away and never looked at again!
We’re talking about a working plan that clearly defines your goals, what your business indicators are telling you, and what your short, medium and long-term strategy will be for getting there?
It’s likely to be short, have involved and secured the commitment of the key players in your business, including your accountant!
At Rackhams, we regularly help our clients construct plans and conduct regular reviews. Critical for start-ups but essential for growing businesses too.
23% of UK businesses have no business plan.
45% of UK businesses fail within the first five years.
Are those unfortunate coincidences?
We, other accountants, and the 45,000 business advisers know it isn’t!
What a business mentor offers
- A sounding board
- An independent and confidential ear
- Networking resources
- Proven strategies relevant to your sector and market
- Perspective (what your business indicators are telling you)
- Personal support and a sense that you’re not alone
- Identifies upskilling and training needs
If you’re looking for experience and advice and someone to help you steer around the next wave of business challenges, have a long think about the resource you already know, trust and are paying for—you could have the perfect solution already sorted!
Contact Rackhams Accountants to book a free initial consultation or a business plan review
01482 631700 or visit our website
