Posts by Rob Knights and Co
Tips & Traps When Changing Financial Planning Licensees
Through our practice broking and valuation services, we have for many years now observed the interactions between Dealer Groups/Licensees and their representatives within multidisciplinary and standalone financial planning firms. Prior to many of the more recent industry changes, there was this underlying view by the licensees that they owned the clients serviced by the planners,…
Read MoreHave We as a Profession, at Least in Part, Contributed to our Current Staffing Issues?
Let’s face it, staffing has typically been a world of pain for the accounting profession for many many years now, with perhaps the exception of the last GFC, as well as may be during the early onset of this pandemic when so much was unknown. However, as NSW and VIC began coming out of lockdown…
Read MoreSupply & Demand – The Basics Driving Practice Pricing
So we all know and appreciate the basics of supply and demand. This has been a principle that has been influential upon the transactional market, of particularly accounting firms, for many years now. Essentially, the availability of accounting practices for sale in the open marketplace in many core areas throughout Australia has been limited for…
Read MoreHow Efficient & Productive is Your Firm?
We recently released our 2021 Efficiency and Productivity Reports which highlight the number of hours charged to clients, as well as the revenue produced, by various personnel within firms. This data is often utilised by firms to assess excess capacity amongst its resources, as well as set salaries and performance targets, finetune budgets and forecast…
Read MoreThe Importance of Proprietorship & Estate Documentation
As advisers, most, if not all of us, would spend a proportion of our time encouraging our clients to seek legal advice in respect of the implementation of partnership or proprietorship agreements when in business with others, as well as the drawing up of documents such as wills, powers of attorney and enduring guardianships. However,…
Read MoreSMSF Clients – How will your Firm Address this Need Moving Forward?
From time to time we have received enquiries from parties interested in purchasing SMSF audits as well as the compliance work associated with SMSFs. It has always kind of intrigued me what that conversation would tend to look like with clients, and furthermore, what the benefit would be for the firms, other than the sales…
Read MorePersonnel Problems
In short, there is something funky happening in respect of accounting personnel and all firms should be wary. We appreciate staff, good staff, are never easy to come by, especially in regional centres, although perhaps with the pandemic we have had some reprieve from the significant need to recruit. That said, since around October last…
Read MoreLocation, Location, Location, is this as Important Anymore?
For many many years, professional firms have generally been quite selective about where their offices have been located. The quality of a firm’s office was thought to contribute to their brand, professionalism, image and the like. For the big end of town, this is particularly so, often locating their offices in the biggest and best…
Read MoreRelationship-based clients are stickier than you think
Client retention is clearly one of the greatest unknowns within any business. Once you have serviced a client, will they come back? How many times do I need to have serviced a client before I can really call them “my client”? This will obviously be different across various industries. People are perhaps less dedicated to…
Read MoreWe need to find a way past generational expectations to aid succession
For almost as long as I can remember now, many professional firms throughout Australia, and probably the world, have utilised two primary reasons why their firms have no internal options for succession. These being: 1. The staff have not expressed any interest in becoming equity holders in this firm 2.…
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