Five steps to being an indispensable Advisor

After a turbulent two years and with the new year, business clients are of a mind to cut costs. Cost-cutting may be driven by various reasons: the client wants to price their products more competitively, they want to improve their financial performance, or they simply want to serve their customers better. For accountants, hearing your client is cutting costs could ring alarm bells, as your services may be an item on the list of things to lose.

Swoop is here to help! In this article, we are going to look at some actions and precautions you can take to avoid getting laid off when your client or business is cutting costs.

Things You Can Do to Avoid Getting Laid Off

1. Avoid Common Accounting Mistakes

Mistakes happen, but while some can be fairly minor, others have the potential to seriously affect a business’s financial health. Here are some of the most common accounting mistakes you should avoid.

• Failure to Prioritize

One of the most common mistakes accountants make is failing to prioritize budgets. Most can spend too much time on low-value items when one should prioritize important expenditures during budget review meetings.

• Underestimating the Importance of Bookkeeping

To be an effective accountant, you need to record everything. Whether it’s a small transaction from customers or large payments from clients, everything must be recorded and categorized properly in your accounts. However small the business or client is, taking bookkeeping seriously gives an accurate picture of the client or business’s financial health. The devil is in the detail.

• Not Enough Engagement with the Business

People like to do business with people, so make time for the personal touch. Ensure that you spend enough time with the different departments of the business and find out how they operate. Engaging with the business and the people in it helps accountants understand what is going on and find out ways to improve efficiencies.

2. Always Demonstrate the Value You Provide for Your Client/Company

Remember to look out for opportunities where you can showcase your talents to your client. One way you can demonstrate your value is to focus on high-priority assignments that provide the highest impact on your company or client’s bottom line. Being considered as a valuable team member will secure your spot, even if your client/company is cutting costs. Another way is to offer value added services such as funding advisory.

If you are new to funding advisory, Swoop is a great place to start and our team of experts is on hand to make sure you have the information you need. If you have experience of advisory funding, you will be impressed by how much time you save on the Swoop platform which gives you a whole market overview allowing our to find the products and deals that will work best for your client’s needs.

3. Promote Your Accomplishments Whenever Possible

Don’t assume that your clients will always recognize your work and contribution. You should regularly update your clients on the progress you’ve made. On your progress report, you should include big financial impacts whenever possible, such as expense savings, increased sales revenue, etc. When you receive praise or compliments from customers or other clients, you can ask them to put it in writing so that you can share them with other clients or your boss.

You will want it to be as easy as possible for your client to say, “The Advisor has cost $this but the amount they have saved us is $that.”

4. Stay Positive

You cannot change your circumstances but you can usually change your attitude. Optimism is a survival strategy that helps us overcome temporary setbacks and is an attractive quality that wins the enthusiasm of others. If what you are doing isn’t working, try something different. Retrain, brand or find that aspect of Advisory that you didn’t like and try it again. Swoop was built to save Advisors time, so use that time to add value to your own business, as well as your clients’.

Conclusion

A business cutting costs isn’t always going to affect your position as their accountant, however, it is always good to be prepared for anything. By following any of these tips, you can boost the chances that you’ll keep your position in your client’s business and keep providing services for them.

It’s important that you have access to right tools to manage and grow their business as well. Using Swoop‘s digital funding marketplace will enable you to access a broad range of funding options for your clients. Swoop‘s technology saves you hours of time by cleverly matching your clients to grants, business loans and investment opportunities based on their unique company profile, all in one easy-to-use platform. Click here to sign up to Swoop and seamlessly onboard your clients to start matching them with simple, secure and speedy funding.