What we learnt from the AVN Accountants Conference

Polly Holbrook  |  29 June 2011

Richard Sergeant, PracticeWEB's Managing Director, shares his thoughts from last week's AVN Accountants Conference.

What really struck me about the slightly valedictorian keynote addresses at last week’s extremely good AVN Accountants Conference was that each, although some slightly more reflective and thoughtful than others, contained an enthusiasm and energy which permeated not only the day but also I believe reflects much of what is good and exciting about the accountancy sector.

Your business is changing, and beware it may be changing around you, and quite possibly without you. And perhaps at a more fundamental level than we have been thinking about in recent times. David Maister and Paul Dunn are either now retired or engaged in activities that are taking them to fulfil more of their personal motivations. I'm not going to pension Mark off just yet, but he is engaged further and further with work associated with his charities and there were sober messages from him to his generation of baby boomers of what they can expect, and what the level of expectations there are, from those that they may have anticipated would succeed them in their practice. And on what terms.

So there was a sense of passing. Some real reflections. And some warnings that business all around us has to change and refocus its values.

So where's the good news in all of this? Well I think it's this: Your clients need you more than ever. And they want to do business in a way that is transparent, fair, and where they are treated like real individuals. And they want a practice that reflects their aspirations, their values, and their way of doing business. And that is a great and very exciting thing!  

This is the message that I took not only from the Titans on stage, but also from the firms present there. It was great privilege to see not only two PracticeWEB clients win AVN firm of the year (joint spectacular) Stark Main and Clear Vision, but also the two runners up as well Woods Squared and Greenstones - a very satisfying clean sweep for us of course, but to see just what these firms are doing in terms of how they focus their practices to deliver on clients expectations was quite inspiring, and  not only do we congratulate them but actually it's an honour to have such progressive firms as clients.

It's all been a powerful reminder of how the world in which we live and operate in, evolves at pace, and how that putting the clients at the heart of your service and being visible about the positioning and values of the business is more important than ever.

Your website, as your most visible asset, sits at the very edge of this presentation. So it is essential that we work with you to ensure that it is tuned and refined to deliver for your clients and for your business.

Our job, as I passionately believe, is to help build the value propositions of our licensees, for you now, and for those that ultimately you will pass the business on to.

So thanks once again to the Titans! Enjoy how you spend your days, and thanks for the reminder that there is plenty of good work to be done.

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