Ignore us at your peril
I was at a seminar recently, given by a Marketing “Guru” and he was pitching his take on how to get rich, which involved learning how to become an expert public speaker, achieved, in part, by buying and attending the course he was selling.
And while I agreed with a lot of what he said, he did say one thing that stuck in my mind. He said, “don’t listen to your accountant; they will only hold you back.”
I was, at that point, mildly dozing off; it had been a long morning, and we were due a coffee break, but when he said that I woke up. Surely he didn’t just say that I thought to myself.
He went on to say that you should distance yourself from your accountant because they focus on the past and are negative, and you should focus on the future and be positive.
Whilst I agree you should focus on the future and be positive, I disagree that this is the way you should perceive your relationship with your accountant. However, I do, kind of, understand why he might say this.
The wrong accountant can be all of those negative things, but that is no reason not to go out and find the right accountant. The right accountant for your business will help it fly.
This speaker had just had a bad experience with a stereotypical accountant, but worryingly he was pitching this skewed view to the 200 or so eager delegates on this “course”.
I maintain that you should do the opposite of distancing yourself and, instead, build a great relationship with your accountant because they have, or should have, great insight into your business. What’s more, they should have great insight into 100’s of businesses and should share this experience with you.
Your accountant can and will have a huge positive impact on your business, so please don’t distance yourself from them.
So ignore your accountant at your peril and if you find yourself being given this advice, then don’t listen, it’s the opposite of what you should do.
