Link is here … http://thebusinesshub.fm/the-business-hub-show-podcast-06-february-2011/
Ann Hawkins from The Inspired Group is currently presenting The A-Z of Business Success and invited me as a guest for letter A (How to find your ideal accountant!)
Thank you Ann for the invite and looking forward to hearing your other guests on there soon 
Maxine Welford is owner of Maxxy Telemarketing and Find-me-an-accountant.com providing specialist lead generation for accountants and finding ideal accountants for business owners nationwide.
Maxine has spoken with thousands of business owners since 2005 and understands why people select and why they change accountant.
She is group leader for the marketing discussion forum at AccountingWEB, the UK’s largest forum for Accountants and Maxxy can be found at the top of google organic rankings for telemarketing for accountants.
Her finance background enables her to have knowledgeable discussions with both accountants and business owners on what makes the relationship between accountants and business owner successful.
Deciding to expand on her telemarketing business she launched find-me-an-accountant.com a year ago specifically with the aim of matching and introducing accountants and clients to each other. Both parties complete a vigorous survey and telephone interview to capture as much information as possible about what they both want from the working relationship.
She chose the domain name with dashes as otherwise it could have spelt “find mean accountant” and nobody wants one of them!
Accountants are running a business too and it can be more profitable for them to build their customer base in line with their strengths whether that is industry experience, qualifications in key areas, software products, services, or client care.
Business owners often don’t know what too look for when choosing an accountant and so find-me-an-accountant.com points them in the right direction for them.
The “dating agency” approach works as both parties carefully think about what they want from the other party. With valentines day around the corner, find-me-an-accountant.com will be playing cupid to accountants and business owners!
The service is free to business owners as accountants pay for introductions made to suit their practice’s requirements.
She is a prolific tweeter too @maxinemaxxy and also supports clients with social media for lead generation.
We have a good base of accountants across the UK but regularly seek more especially where a client has a need for a particular industry strength or software preference in a particular geographical location.
Our service has been more popular than we originally thought and it helps to save time with introducing clients to accountants who we think are suitable for them.
We have a survey running at the moment and one of the question asks if people know what qualifications their accountant has.
25% Admit they haven’t got the first clue!
A further 50% approx are not sure but think they have some sort of recognised qualification but don’t know what.
We are asking this question not because we advocate that qualifications are the be all and end all of supplying accountancy services, but because we are evaluating where the perceived benefits are from particular qualifications.
It goes without saying that experience and recommendation are usually important when selecting an accounting, but to not have any idea whatsoever of qualifications can make certain people in certain industries more vulnerable and exposed than others to areas such as large tax bills, financial surprises, weaker financial performance etc. To build on this having someone with the appropriate qualifications (plus experience, personality etc) can make a huge positive impact to financial performance.
Personally I am surprised that the levels of ignorance around qualifications was as high as this. I expected there to be a large number of people who were not so sure but 25% without the first clue is a bit worrying don’t you think?
Tax changes quickly and it’s often difficult for accountants to write about tax planning without knowing people’s individual circumstances.
Here, our author Frank gives some general and advice for more meaningful and productive discussions with your accountant…
· Be cautious of tales from the pub! People can be notoriously inexact about their earnings, keen to boast and don’t usually understand the detail of their tax bill. Their circumstances may be very different to yours.
· Tax planning should happen during the year, not after, and certainly not just before the tax payment date.
· Good bookkeeping will give facts to help reasonable discussions about tax to take place. Waiting for draft accounts to be prepared may result in it being too late for tax planning.
· Well organised records will help keep track and claim all business expenses. You are much less likely ot have unexplained expenditure that cannot be claimed because you cannot remember what it was for! It’s not vital that every expense is supported with a receipt provided you can demonstrate it was a reasonable business expense but this should be an exception and you should have receipts for the majority of expenses.
… and finally… tax planning does not mean failing to put all your takings through the books because “that is what everyone does”. That’s isn’t tax planning, it’s fraud.
You can leave a comment for Frank below or you can contact the author via our contact section.
If you do, and you are looking to grow your practice, I would love to hear from you!
We are getting regular enquiries from clients who are specifically looking for accountants who offer remote based services. So if this is you, and you belong to any of the professional accountancy bodies, please get in contact or better still, complete the Accountant’s survey and we can start referring new business to you soon.
If you feel that finding the right accountant should be a carefully considered decision. One that is based on a combination of factors and not just fees alone please come and say Hi and show your support by leaving a comment here.
You can use this to leave your name and your web address, but it’s not advisable to leave your email address (pesky spammers!) Please keep your comments to a reasonable length or they will get edited.
Nice to meet you and Please Retweet this article to show your support.
Regards, Maxine
PS – We don’t endorse or recommend the services of any accountants posting comments here. This post is purely to show support for the concept of the site and our service aims
Quite often an accountant is introduced via recommendation which can sometimes miss the key benefits to be had with regard to industry qualifications, skills and experience which in turn leads to better financial success and reward for the client.
We are very different to other resources on the web… and here’s why…
This article is a light hearted look at the types of accountancy clients and what may influence them changing accountants… Are you a Service Seeker, Misunderstood, A Prudent Purse, A Techno Whizz or Other…
I first blogged about finding an accountant at my Maxxy/blog This was in part my inspiration for setting up find-me-an-accountant.com but also partly because of the responses we get when we are telemarketing for accountancy clients. It seemed pretty obvious that we would be able to help on a brokerage type basis and so the “dating agency” approach was born.
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