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An award-winning accountant has weighed in on how professionals can make their mark, leading to greater attraction and retention of clients.
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Award-winning accountant shares key to success
09 March 2022
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12 minute read
Natalie Lennon CA, founder and director of Two Sides Accounting, recently picked up the Accountant of the Year title at the recent Women in Finance Awards.
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Ms Lennon, who has spent the past four and a half years growing her firm said she puts the win down to kicking goals and milestones set from the forefront.
“My biggest success would have to be leaving a five-year partnership with male partners who always treated me like the junior female who wasn’t good enough (despite me being a 40 per cent equity partner) to start my own firm back in 2017,” Ms Lennon said.
“I knew that there was better ways to do almost everything in an accounting firm and I was determined to use my love of tech and automation to work a lot smarter than the old firm and be more profitable. Being a female I knew I had my work cut out for me and even my business partners laughed at me when I told them I was leaving to start my own firm.
“I identified that starting up a firm in 2017 was relatively easy and you didn’t need a lot of start up capital, all I needed was my laptop and a good internet connection... and a scanner to scan all of the ‘old school paper files’ into my new cloud based system without the need for spending $40K on a server.
“I also knew that clients want a relatable accountant so I decided I would be quite casual in my approach in terms of everything from clothing to the language used. There was also not many women starting their own firms at that stage. I knew that I could be very profitable from day one just from automating the most basic tasks such as adopting digital signing and no paper.”
Laser-focused
Sticking with this approach, Ms Lennon’s firm hit its three-year targets. Notably, Two Sides Accounting grew from the $60,000 of fees Ms Lennon started with to $188,000 in year one, more than doubled the fees in year two, and then saw a 54 per cent increase in year three, despite having to grapple with the challenges spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think over the past two years with COVID everything in our industry changed,” Ms Lennon said.
“In 2020 I knew that people were stressed and they needed to be informed, so my solution was free weekly webinars for anyone, establishing a Facebook Group with a lawyer and HR expert for people to ask questions and share info, establishing a self assessment tool using Typeform to assist people to be able to find information relevant to their individual situation and also doing Live Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok videos to answer [people’s] questions on everything re COVID and govt support payments.
“I stopped sharing curated videos and started sharing shorter clips on Instagram and Tiktok that were more relatable and real. I also found that video communication through mail outs and to the wider public on social media helped us to position ourselves early on during COVID as experts on all things COVID. I was posting each and every day, sometimes more than once per day with updates. really positioned me as an expert Accountant with some of my videos getting over 300K views. I now have almost 17K followers on Tiktok and 11K on Instagram. Humour as well as breaking information down into bite size pieces has increased our leads substantially. I discovered that people relate to it more than some blog posts on boring tax related topics so that is where I have focused our innovative marketing efforts.”
Key clients
For Ms Lennon, the majority of clients come from social media or word of mouth.
“As we offer a full service from bookkeeping through to the more complex tax planning, tax issues and tax returns we find that clients are looking for a one stop shop instead of a bookkeeper and an accountant,” she said.
“We have the option of face to face or using technology such as zoom and smart forms like Typeform for individual tax returns so we make it as easy as possible for our clients as we know that people don’t like getting their tax done or their bookkeeping.”
According to Ms Lennon, her firm’s key point of difference is essential to its success.
“Our core values are as follows: Work smarter – we question the way things are done to work more efficiently with and for our clients; Make it happen – we get things done and explain things in an easy to understand way without the waffle and complicated tax jargon; One team – we share our knowledge and skills across the team so that clients can always speak with someone; Casual but professional – we don’t wear the traditional suit and tie/cardigan to work and the clients love that, it makes us more relatable; Positive Vibes – we are always smiling and ready to help our clients with whatever issues come their way; Wow our clients – we are always looking for ways to enhance our customer journey,” Ms Lennon said.
Advice for others
Being recognised on a national level is a valuable tool in making yourself and/or your firm stand out.
Going forward, Ms Lennon encouraged accountants to make the most of industry-wide events and lodge a submission for any applicable awards.
“Keep on sharing the awesome things you are doing and you will get recognised for it. I have been nominated for many awards over the past 4.5 years and this was my first one that I did not think I would win,” she said.
“Reach out to others in the industry if you need help on any special projects or even just to give you the push and the confidence to apply for these types of awards.
“Always attend award nights that you are nominated for an award for. This was the first one I didn’t attend and the first award I have won...
“Believe in yourself and never give up. The only person you should take advice from is YOU.”
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