How Sky Accountants grew to 5m and is heading to AUD 10m.
How Sky Accountants Grew to 5m
In this episode you hear from Jamie Johns, the founder and CEO of Sky Accountants and also founder and mentor at Wize Mentoring. Jamie grew his firm to an annual turnover of $5m heading towards $10m. As a mentor at Wize Mentoring he has a unique view into what helps us grow.
Here is what we learned but please listen in as Jamie explains all this much better than we ever could.
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How Sky Accountants Grew to 5m
Here are just a few of the things we learned from Jamie Jones of Sky Accountants and also Mentor at Wize Mentoring during the interview:
- The clients you talk to are the ones who refer you. So talk to your A clients more than to your D clients.
- It’s not about what you do but how you do it.
- Don’t go shallow and wide, since you then have too many people reporting to you. Have a deep and narrow team structure instead, so the practice doesn’t depend on you for much.
- Break your firm into different positions like a sports team. And then hire for each position. Don’t look for a superstar who can do everything.
- Create separate pods within your firm, each managing AUD 1m of turnover with 6 grinders and 1 minder. One of the six grinders is the production manager. The minder (client manager) might be supported by an assistant. You are the finder at the very top, working on Position that helps to drive new clients to each of the pods.
- Spend one hour a day working on your business.
Please listen to the interview since Jamie goes into a lot more detail.
After the interview, there are three more things for you.
1 – Having a mentor
You will hear a comment by Jamie Johns about having a mentor.
2 – The 4Ps
We look at the 4 pillar model that Reza Hooda developed and spoke about in detail in ep 371. Position, Price, Process, People. Which one should you focus on?
If your turnover has hit the $1m mark, you already have a strong position in the market, then you probably need to focus on process and people. Pulling yourself out of the day-to-day operation.
But if you are under the $1m turnover mark and especially if you don’t compete on price, then ‘position’ is everything. Positioning yourself in the market with a unique offer that your ideal clients want. Or in short: finding new clients.
You could argue that price is part of your position anyway. What you offer to the market is not independent of price. Your price is part of your offer. But think of your position independent of price, unless you compete on price.
If you compete on price, then yes, price is part of your position.
But if you don’t compete on price, then other factors should define your position.
What is the first thing your clients think of you? It shouldn’t be, ‘My accountant only charges me x amount for my tax return.” Because if that is what they think, then you are competing on price, whether you like it or not. And remember, “Clients who join you on price, will leave you on price.”
So focus on position, and get a mentor who
In the episode we refer back to a comment Rachel Harris of StriveX made about referrals in ep 414.
And what she says suggests that anybody who doesn’t get enough referrals is not doing a good job. And that is not the case. We all do a good job. Nobody is perfect, we all drop the ball at times, but you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t motivated and working hard to deliver a good service. So it is not about doing a good job. We all do that. So it has to be something else.
Jamie Jones made a helpful comment when he said that referrals come from the clients you are talking to. There is some truth to that.
And that is the crux. We tend to spend most of our time talking to our C clients, our difficult clients, the ones with the low fees but messy books, and huge tax debts, and then of course we get referrals from clients like that. So we need to talk to our good clients, our A clients, the ones we want to have more of.
So rate your clients from A to C or D. A as in: You want more clients like this. B: as in hold, they are good clients but not your preferred industry or size, so ok to have but not to look for and C: as in you want less of. Eventually, I think we should move our C clients on but that is a different topic. So rate your clients and then make an effort to talk more to your A clients. I am not saying that is the final answer, but I think it is a first step.
So work out which of the 4Ps you need to focus on. And then find a mentor who is strong in that area.
We are not saying that you must have a mentor. But you need to look for content from people who address the challenges you focus on.
3 – Comment from Mark Bouris
When you reflect on all the interviews with successful practice owners we have done so far – the 13 episodes with Ed Chan of Chan & Naylor and Wize Mentoring from episode 174 onwards, Jamie Jones today, the three episodes with Rachel Harris of StriveX in the UK in ep 413 to 415, Lucy Cohen of Mazuma Accountants in the UK in ep 330, Reza Hooda in the UK in episodes 370 and 371 – when you reflect on these, there is a lot to learn from these very successful practice owners.
All these practices must be doing something right – the proof is in the pudding, they wouldn’t have grown the way they did if they hadn’t, but it is hard to pinpoint what exactly that is. Why things work out well for them, even when they haven’t positioned themselves in a niche and/or their website is nothing outstanding to write home about and/ or their social media is nothing to blow you out of the water.
So in case you feel a bit despondent about how hard it is and others seem to have worked it out, we will play you a quick snippet from Mark Bouris. Just in case hearing from all these super successful people makes you doubt yourself.
You might know Mark Bouris from ‘Wizard Home Loans’ or Yellow Brick Road or as the host of The Apprentice or The Celebrity Apprentice.
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