Are Accountants Being Threatened In Their Industry?

Updated: January 01, 2012

Accountants have been indoctrinated into a culture and like a cult, they fear change.

They look around, see what everyone else is doing to create and manage their businesses and do something similar, fearing to step out of their comfort zone.

Then again, perhaps they just don't know what to do differently.

Accountants believe that clients need them.

But how could this be when we now have ‘Accounting for Managers" courses, QuickBooks & other user friendly accounting programs.

A long time ago, I came to the realization that most small businesses and solo-entrepreneurs don't want number-crunchers.

In this case, their solution would be to get a bookkeeper and have their books audited once per year. It certainly is cheaper.

You see, accountants are educated on technical issues, preparing the financial statements, analyzing the profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow statements...all good in preparation for getting a job in a company.

However this is not so good if you want to start your own business and make money running it. They need to know about business.

Even when you look at the articles and tips written by accountants to their clients, they talk about "accruals" and "software" and "concepts"

CLIENTS DON'T CARE!!

That's YOUR job! They don't want the details.

Clients only want 3 things:

  1. Make Money
  2. Save Money
  3. Save Time

Accountants are being threatened because they are not fulfilling this basic requirement to their clients.

They do not know how to market their business and become attractive to their clients. When I say ‘attractive', I mean you attracting your clients, clients coming to you, rather than you going out to get them.

So what do accountants do instead?

They resist embracing change and establish ‘rules' like "Accountants don't advertise".

Bah-humbug!

This makes us too reactive and subject to clients dictating our fees, because now they are in charge. We went out and worked to get that client. We didn't attract them. Sadly, we really just sit and wait for clients to walk in!

Hey, businesses don't want accountants anymore. They want those 3 things. (Know them by heart!)