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Chartered Accountants &
Business Advisors

Working with you to design a business you love so you can reach your definition of success.

Chartered Accountants &
Business Advisors

PHONEICONS-02+ 04 910 3340
WELLINGTON

PHONEICONS-02+ 04 910 3340
WELLINGTON

Your Impact Manifesto and the Role of Your Business in the World

15 Mar 2021 | Legacy

What do you remember most from your grandparents? Maybe it’s the life lessons they taught you, the tears they wiped after your cousin said something nasty to you, or when they encouraged you to get back up again after you fell. Maybe they taught you to have fun and smell the flowers along the way.

Or maybe, what you remember most, is the inheritance they left you. The money and the stuff.

Hmm… not likely. For most people, what they value most from their grandparents is the impact they made in their lives.

It’s the same in business. Making money is good – you have to put food on the table – but the thing we’re most concerned about is the impact we make in the world and the lives around us.

Impact looks different for everyone because we all have different things we care about. But the best way to make sure you make the impact you want to, is to get clear on what your impact goals are. Then share it, and start living it.

Your impact manifesto is your anchor.

As your business changes and grows over the years, and as you learn more about business and your clients, it’s easy to veer off course – all the ideas you’ve had about the impact you wanted to make long forgotten.

But, if you have a clear Impact Manifesto, it stays in front of mind. You can weigh every business decision against it and choose the option that is most aligned with your impact goals. And if none of those options fit, then you know that you should go back to the drawing board.

 

Creating Your Impact Manifesto

When choosing your impact goals, there are broadly two categories to consider: Immediate impact and legacy impact.

Immediate impact refers to the lives you change today. Here are a few examples:

  • Your employees: Creating a working environment where they feel you value their opinion, and they know they can ask questions or raise concerns.
  • Your customers: Focusing on the difference your product or service makes in the lives of your clients. For instance, an architect or builder may want to create a house for their clients where they can live the lifestyle they desire.
  • Community and environment: Creating a product or service that is better for the environment. For instance, as a coffee shop, you can encourage customers to bring their own reusable coffee cup.

Legacy impact refers to the long-lasting difference you make. Here are a few examples:

  • Employees: Creating a culture of learning where you train and mentor your employees. You can help them develop their career so they can become the best they possibly can.
  • Customers: Being a thought-leader in your industry and championing a different approach. For instance, an architect who designs modular houses from sustainable materials that are cheaper and easier to build. They make it affordable to not only create a quality, dream house, but also do better for the environment.
  • Community and environment: Creating awareness about an important topic and shifting the way people think about something. For instance, depression used to be a taboo topic. Now people can reach out for help without being afraid of what others would say. 

 

A Few Snippets from BWMD’s Impact Manifesto

We believe that your business is a tool to help you create the lifestyle you dream of. We also believe that success looks different to everyone. For some, they want to grow their business quickly and consistently. For others, they want to make just enough money to lead a comfortable life, with lots of time for other things, like spending time with family, travelling, or pursuing a hobby.

That’s why, the first question we ask you, is “what does success look like for you?” And then we help you craft your business on your terms.

That is the legacy we want to leave. What’s yours?

Does Your Business Support Your Lifestyle Vision?

21 Jan 2021 | Lifestyle

When you started your business, how much time did you spend on creating your vision? A month? A day? Or were you just winging it?

And, if you purposefully developed your vision, did that vision only include what you want for your business or did you actually think about the lifestyle you want to lead, and how your business can support that lifestyle?

Did you catch that?

 

Your business should not rule and overshadow your life; you should not arrange your lifestyle around your business. Your business is just a part of your life – a very large and important part – but not the whole thing.

As owners, we often find ourselves completely consumed with the business and what it needs.

Your friend calls, asking about a ladies night. Sorry, gotta work. It’s your dad’s birthday and he wants you there. Sorry, I have a deadline. Your partner wants to go and watch the latest Avengers movie. Sorry honey, I’m just not that into superheroes (I’m too busy being one!)

It’s so easy to fall into these annoying patterns, giving more and more until you’re nearing burnout. But, there is a better way.

 

Your business should support your vision. Your life vision.

 

So, what does that mean?

Think of it like this. One day, when you lay on your deathbed thinking back, how would you want your life to have played out? What would you like people to say about you once you’re gone?

To determine what your life vision is, you need to ask yourself questions like:

  • What do I value most in life?
  • How do I want my day-to-day life to look like?
  • How do I want to spend my time with my family and friends, and how much?
  • What would I like people to say about me when I’m not around?
  • Who do I want to be?
  • How much money do I need to make so that those things can come true?
  • What does success look like to me?

Once you know the answers to these questions, you actively need to start creating the life you want. Intentionally.

During lockdown, we all reflected on the business and decided that we’d like to make changes too (we sort of liked being at home). Soon after we had a business strategy session where we delved deeper into our vision and how the firm could support that.

 

Your business is a tool to help you realise your life goals.

 

When you actively create the life and business you truly want, you may not end up completely where you want to be. You may have to take a U-turn sometimes to correct your path. And you may (most probably would) develop an even better vision along the way.

Knowing what you’re working towards gives you purpose. It gives you energy when things are tough or not going according to plan. It gives you courage when you need to say no. It gives you a measuring stick to gauge your progress.

Designing a business around your lifestyle is not easy, though.

You may find that sometimes you need to take a few steps back to learn a new skill you need to fulfil your vision. Sometimes you need to say no to clients who are draining all of your energy. And sometimes, you may have to walk away from a business you’ve built up from scratch with blood, sweat, and tears. It may not be easy, but it may be necessary.

And sometimes you need to ask for help.

As entrepreneur and motivational speaker, Jim Rohn famously said, “we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.”

Who do you spend time with? Who do you go to when you need advice?

We’d love to be one of the five ‘people’ you pick to spend your time with in 2021.

Apart from finance and tax-related content, we are focusing more on sharing ideas and steps you could take to design the business and lifestyle you want through these blogs and other channels. Make sure you subscribe to our newsletters and keep an eye out for these tips. And, when you’re ready for one-on-one support, get in touch to set up a coffee-date.

Rockstars vs. Superstars: Get the Right Bums in the Right Seats

4 Dec 2020 | Team

We’ve learned a few things this past year:

  • No matter how well thought out your plans are, you can never account for everything life throws at you – who would have thought at the start of 2020 that the world would be turned upside-down by covid-craziness?
  • We’re more resilient than what we thought we were. Despite the craziness, we’ve survived – some even thrived – and we’re stronger than ever before.
  • It’s vital to have the right bums in the right seats in your business. With the right team, you can adjust and come up with new ideas quickly when things don’t go according to plan, while still maintaining quality.

But how do you choose the right bums?

 

Rockstars vs. Superstars

There are two types of employees you want on your team: Rockstars, and Superstars.

Your superstars are the ambitious, growth-seekers. They’re the ones that want to be in leadership positions, who will push the envelope, and come up with innovative ideas.

On the other hand, your rockstars want to pretty much stay where they are, but become better at it. They want to perfect their craft and be the best they could possibly be in their role. They love stability.

We often try to turn rockstars into superstars, but that’s a recipe for failure. How many times have you promoted someone just because they’re dependable and excellent at what they do, without considering whether the promotion is actually what they want?

In Radical Candor, author Kim Scott describes these two types of employees as follows:

“Rockstars are solid as a rock. Think the Rock of Gibraltar, not Bruce Springsteen. The rockstars love their work. They have found their groove. They don’t want the next job if it will take them away from their craft. Not all artists want to own a gallery; in fact, most don’t. If you honour and reward the rockstars, they’ll become the people you most rely on. If you promote them into roles they don’t want or aren’t suited for, however, you’ll lose them — or, even worse, wind up firing them.

Superstars, on the other hand, need to be challenged and given new opportunities to grow constantly.”

Putting the Right Bums in the Right Seats

Being the one or the other isn’t good or bad. It just is. We need to respect what others want out of their lives. Most importantly, we need both in our businesses and we need to learn how to use their strengths and ambitions to the betterment of the firm. You need the people who would go deep, who’d produce the same quality over and over again, and who you know you can count on. You also need the people who would lead and inspire and innovate.

So, when you do your planning for next year, do a deep dive into your team:

  1. Identify your rockstars and your superstars. And yes, they may not all be stars yet, but that brings us to the next point.
  2. Determine what you need to do to help each person to develop into their chosen stardom. Maybe you need to restructure your team, send people on training, or assign mentors to juniors.

Your team doesn’t always have to be full-time employees. For smaller or unique functions, consider hiring a contractor or professional to help. For instance, if you have a small business,  instead of hiring an expensive CFO, think about hiring us to fulfil that function for you. It’s always good to have someone from the outside to listen to your challenges and give you unbiased advice. 

The Dance for Trust

13 Nov 2020 | Relationships

Imagine this. You’re on your first date with someone you’ve just met. You like what you see – they’re easy on the eye, the conversations are interesting, and you find that you have a lot in common (as much as you can figure out in a few hours). All in all, it’s an excellent date.

Are you ready to tie the knot, though? Of course not. You don’t know know this person yet. You don’t know which secrets they have hidden away.

You don’t trust this person yet.

And without trust, the only place this thing is going is a casual fling.

It’s the same in business. You may like the look of a product, their proposal is well put together, or their ad makes you feel good. You’ll try it out, but you’re not going to commit for life to this one brand yet. As soon as something better comes along, you’re jumping ship.

Trust is not something you just get overnight. Trust is a result – the result of taking lots of small risks, from sharing personal information, from making someone feel safe. Building trust is a dance – give and take, give and take – until one day, you just know you can trust someone completely. 

 

ROR: The Most Important Metric

You’re familiar with Return on Investment (ROI), right? But have you heard about ROR – Return on Relationship? We’d like to offer that ROR is more important than ROI. “But wait, I’m in business to make money,” you may say.

And you’re right. However, the better your ROR is, the better your ROI would be. The stronger the relationships are that you have with your clients, the more they will buy from you and the longer they’ll come to you for your services.

“ROR (Return on Relationship) is the value accrued by a person or a brand due to nurturing a relationship. ROI (Return on Investment) is simple dollars and cents. ROR is the value (perceived and real) that will accrue over time through loyalty, recommendations, and sharing.” – Ted Rubin

ROR is calculated by measuring referrals or repeat business compared to total clients you’ve helped over the last 12 months. For instance, if you’ve helped 1,000 people over the last year of which 200 are referrals or repeat customers, your ROR would be 20%.

 

How Do You Foster Great Relationships with Clients?

There are several ways to nurture relationships. For instance, you can share behind-the-scenes stories of what you’re up to. Or you can call one client a week just to catch up and hear how they’re doing. You can respond quickly to queries, ask for feedback, or host events for your most loyal clients.

These are just some ideas, and what would work for someone else may not work for you and your business. Figuring out your own relationship-building strategies is the fun part, especially if you do it hand-in-hand with your clients.

Our challenge to you – and ourselves – is to figure out how to best build relationships in the business, and to dance the dance for trust.

A Case for a Family-Based Approach to Your Team

16 Oct 2020 | Team

Some of the most successful small and medium-sized businesses treat their team members like valued family members. While many business gurus would argue that this may be bad for business, there’s something to be said for a family-based approach.

 

Benefits of a Family-Based Approach 

Let’s look at why this approach may be a good idea for you. 

1. Higher work satisfaction = better productivity: According to Gallup, people with a best friend at work are seven times more likely to be fully engaged in their work. Your staff spends an average of 40 hours on the job each week and sees their colleagues more than their own family. We all crave human interaction, and when we have great relationships at work, we not only enjoy our work, but we’re also more productive and the quality of our work shoots up.

2. A great culture attracts great talent: For many, it’s not just about the money. Talented people often take lower-paying jobs if they could work in the right environment. Small and medium-sized businesses can’t always compete with big corporations when it comes to salaries; to attract the best, your culture needs to be the best.

3. Turnover is expensive: Every time an employee leaves, you lose money. Think about training new employees, delays, lost productivity, etc. People who are happy at work are less likely to leave.

 

How Do You Create a Family-Based Team Culture? 

Every family is different, and of course, not every type of family culture would work in the business. An absent parent (or boss) whose only form of communication is shouting when something’s not going according to plan, is not exactly a great recipe for success. 

So, which traits would create a great family culture at work?

 

Open Communication 

If your team believes they’re in the know, they’ll feel valued and they’d be willing to walk through fires for you (don’t let them do it, though!). 

Don’t be afraid to share bad news, either. If the business is going through a tough time – very common now thanks to the pandemic – there’s no reason to try and hide it. News flash: they already know things aren’t going too great. You don’t need to share every little detail, but if you take them into your confidence, they’ll do everything they can to help you, the company, and the rest of the team through hard times.

 

Invest in Their Growth 

When we invest in the personal and professional development of the team, we see them make increasingly better contributions to the success of the business. 

The more you invest in them, the more they’ll come up with fresh ideas and perspectives.

 

Family Time a.k.a. Team Building 

Many people are exhausted right now. We’ve had a few hard months behind us, and maybe more to come, and many people are concerned about the future. Your team may be frustrated with things they can’t get done or work they’ve done pre-covid that may seem gone to waste. Whatever the case, everybody needs a break away from the job – either as a team-building exercise or a few days off. 

A couple of months ago we took the team to the Fear Factory, where everybody could scream their frustrations out. Like the saying (which we’ve totally made up) says: “A team that screams together, stays together.”

 

Is a Family-Based Team Approach for You? 

You may not want your team to call you ‘Mum’ or ‘Dad’, but making a few tweaks to the way you treat your team may just create the culture you need for your business to thrive.  

Do you think it’s a good idea to treat your team like family? What else are you doing to create the right culture?