Humanise The Numbers - for ambitious accountants in practice Paul Shrimpling

It takes something special, don’t you think, to start up a brand-new accountancy firm just a couple of months after the start of a global pandemic. 
It’s what Sharon Hirsch of Argus did in May 2020, and on this HumaniseTheNumbers podcast discussion with Sharon, you’ll hear her share a number of valuable insights:  the KPIs that matter most, what her emotional charges are and what it is that’s driving her to do what she’s doing for her 74 clients, some of whom are paying between £1,500 and £2,500 per month. 
She also shares how important it is for her to have a future perspective, to deliver genuine value to her clients and for her and her team to make a real difference.
I hope you're tempted to check out this podcast discussion – there are some really important lessons to learn, and I could feel the passion that Sharon has for her business, for her team and for the importance of client relationships. 
So please go to www.humanisethenumbers.online or to your favourite podcast platform and check out this discussion with Sharon Hirsch.

What do you think it takes to run a fast-growing, leading technology business with 350 people across the UK?
In this podcast discussion with the UK General Manager of Intuit QuickBooks, Jolawn Victor, you'll hear Jolawn share a wide range of insights into what it takes, not only to run and lead QuickBooks in the UK, but also to run and lead a successful accounting business, drawing on her own and her team’s experience of working with many accounting firms.
It was a wide-ranging discussion with Jolawn, one I thoroughly enjoyed because of her open, transparent, candid approach to the discussion and her willingness to share insights on how to power prosperity, not just across the UK accounting profession, but on a global scale as well.
So why not join Jolawn and I on this humanisethenumbers.online podcast. Or, if you wish, go to your favourite podcast platform and you’ll find us there.

How do you change, even as a sole practitioner, the tone of the work in your firm so that you become increasingly valuable to your clients, so that your clients are willing to pay more money for what you do with them and for them? 
In this podcast discussion with Michael Hemme of MDH, an accountancy firm in Croydon, you’ll hear Michael share what he’s doing to build what he calls “soft” skills. I call them hard, because I think that the human skills, the conversation skills, come less naturally to accountants because of the way they’re trained and because of their focus on the numbers. 
But those human skills, those conversation skills, ultimately determine your true value in your clients’ hearts and minds, and Michael seems wholeheartedly committed to building the knowledge and skills of his team so that they can have more high-value conversations with his clients.
It's a really worthwhile conversation on many levels, including his willingness to actually dig out some ancient history – he talks about a Dale Carnegie book, which is the best part of 50 years old, and on which I relied in my early formative years in business, and he uses the insights and the principles of great conversation that were the same 50 years ago as they are today. 
He then works with his team on developing those skills so that he builds stronger relationships or, rather, his team build stronger relationships with his clients. Clients become more loyal, they’re more likely to recommend the firm and they’re more likely and happier to pay more as well.
If you are tempted to listen to what Michael’s got to say in more detail, please go to humanisethenumbers.online or to your favourite podcast platform and look out for that podcast with Michael Hemme.

It's not often that you come across a leader of an accounting firm who has built strategic health into their practice, with crystal clarity on a shared vision, crystal clarity on a core purpose and crystal clarity around the values related to how the firm behaves and the standards they uphold across the firm.
In this podcast discussion with Steve Price, of the Manchester firm Inspire, Steve openly admits that they’re a work in progress and that they’re on their journey to being a better firm, but they have so many good things already in place. 
I loved this conversational debate with Steve because we covered quite a bit of ground, but it was his commitment to his clients, to his team and to the development of the team and the systems which enable his firm to be less reliant on him that stood out for me. 
If you like the idea of creating a firm that’s less reliant on you, a firm where the team are genuinely and wholeheartedly engaged in what they’re doing, then I heartedly recommend you go to humanisethenumbers.online and dive into the podcast with Steve Price. It’s a cracker.

There are a few landmark moments in the life and journey of every business, and we’ve just passed through one of those moments at Remarkable Practice. I'm proud to say we now welcome Douglas Aitken as a fellow shareholder and director of the business and, because of that landmark moment, it felt appropriate that we bring Douglas onto the humanisethenumbers.online podcast, so that you get the opportunity to hear some of the deep insights that Douglas is experiencing from working with firms just like yours, leadership teams just like yours.
It also creates an interesting environment for Douglas and me to chew the fat and see if we can unpack some joint insights that have had a profound impact on us, and hopefully you, and which therefore helps both us and you transform the numbers that matter, so that we can enjoy and feel pride in our work and achieve greater profit and capital value growth.
So if you are up for listening to Douglas and me having a little bit of conflict, uncovering and unpacking a few insights on how to build deeper, stronger connections with your team so that they stay with you and enable you to earn the right to recruit more high-quality people and earn you the right to win more high-value clients, then you'll have a valuable 60 minutes with us on this podcast. 
I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. I hope Douglas did as well and that he’s not wondering why he did it in the first place, but I don't think he will be.
Go to www.humanisethenumbers.online or to your favourite podcast platform, because everything we do is about sharing knowledge and building that knowledge into skill and the skill into the habits that ultimately help you transform your results. I think you'll find this of great interest and value, and also very practical around some very simple core questioning and listening skills. Enjoy the podcast.

It was a great privilege to spend an hour in deep conversation with Glenn Collins, Interim Head of ACCA. Glenn has 23 years of history with ACCA, supporting firms like yours. It was great to get Glenn’s views on high-growth accountancy firms, on the importance of the POD approach to high-growth accountancy firms, and the importance of strategy and anchoring to core purpose, the real meaning behind everything you're doing in your firm.
But Glenn also has views on accountants seeing themselves slightly differently, as a broader service provider than “just accountancy”, as important as accountancy is. He points to one or two ways, one or two insights, that can signpost many more ways that you and your firm can deliver greater value to your clients. 
So if you are interested in hearing more, join me and Glenn Collins from ACCA on this humanisethenumbers.online podcast on your favourite podcast platform. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.