Benchmarking and Valuation for Advisory Growth

For many accounting firms, bookkeepers and business advisors, one of the biggest challenges is identifying practical ways to demonstrate value beyond compliance services.

SME clients are facing increasing pressure from rising costs, labour shortages, cash flow concerns, inflation and growing competition. Many business owners know they need to improve performance but often do not know where the opportunities exist.

This is where benchmarking and business valuation can become powerful advisory tools.

A recent discussion between Peter Towers, Founder and Managing Director of ESS BIZTOOLS, and Darren Gleeson, Managing Director of TaxFitness, highlighted how these services can help advisors identify opportunities, improve client outcomes and generate recurring advisory revenue.

Why Top 20% Benchmarking Matters

Traditional financial reporting tells clients what happened.

Benchmarking helps explain why it happened and what can be improved.

Darren Gleeson highlighted an important reality confronting many SMEs:

❗ A significant percentage of businesses are losing money.
❗ Many others generate profits below the average Australian wage.
❗ Only a relatively small percentage of businesses achieve top-tier profitability.

Top 20% Benchmarking compares a client's performance against the best-performing businesses in their industry rather than against industry averages.

This creates a far more meaningful conversation.

Instead of asking: "Did we make a profit?"

The question becomes: "How far are we from the top performers and what needs to change?"

A Simple Advisory Conversation

One of the key messages from the webinar was that benchmarking does not need to be complicated.

A simple benchmarking review can identify:

✅ Gross profit opportunities
✅ Labour efficiency issues
✅ Overhead cost concerns
✅ Excessive owner's drawings
✅ Productivity challenges
✅ Pricing weaknesses
✅ Supplier cost issues

By highlighting performance gaps, advisors can demonstrate opportunities that clients may never have identified themselves.

Importantly, many improvements can be achieved without increasing sales.

In one example discussed, benchmarking identified an opportunity to improve profitability by approximately $49,000 through operational improvements rather than additional revenue generation.

Turning Compliance Meetings Into Advisory Opportunities

Many firms struggle with how to introduce advisory services.

Benchmarking provides a natural starting point.

After completing annual compliance work, advisors can present a simple benchmarking report and discuss:

✅ How the business compares to industry leaders.
✅ Areas where profitability differs from top performers.
✅ Potential opportunities for improvement.
✅ Whether the client would like assistance implementing changes.

This approach creates an educational process for clients while opening the door to ongoing advisory engagements.

The result is often stronger client relationships, increased advisory revenue and improved business outcomes.

Business Valuation Creates Another Conversation

Business valuation is another advisory service that many SMEs find highly valuable.

Business owners frequently ask: "What is my business worth?"

Unfortunately, many have no idea.

Some overestimate the value significantly, while others have never considered how their business value is created.

A business valuation discussion allows advisors to demonstrate:

✅ How profitability affects business value
✅ The impact of systems and processes
✅ The importance of recurring revenue
✅ How goodwill is created
✅ Succession planning considerations
✅ Retirement and exit planning opportunities

For many business owners, understanding the value of their business becomes a powerful motivator to improve performance.

Advisory Services Clients Will Pay For

One of the strongest messages from the webinar was that benchmarking and business valuation are not simply analytical exercises.

They are advisory services that create meaningful client outcomes.

When clients understand where performance gaps exist and how improvements can increase profitability, cash flow and business value, they are far more likely to engage in ongoing advisory programs.

For firms seeking to expand beyond compliance work, benchmarking and business valuation provide practical, measurable and highly relevant advisory services that can be implemented immediately.

The Opportunity for Your Firm

Many SME clients are looking for guidance.

They want help understanding:

✅ How their business compares to competitors.
✅ Why profits are not where they should be.
✅ How to improve cash flow.
✅ What their business is worth.
✅ How to build long-term value.

Benchmarking and business valuation provide the framework for these conversations.

For accounting firms, bookkeepers and business advisors, they can become the foundation of a profitable and sustainable advisory services offering.

ESS BIZTOOLS provides benchmarking, business advisory and financial forecasting resources designed to help firms deliver practical advisory services to SME clients and build recurring advisory revenue.

Watch How Benchmarking Creates Advisory Opportunities

Would you like to learn how benchmarking and business valuation can be transformed into practical advisory services for SME clients?

Watch the webinar recording featuring Peter Towers and Darren Gleeson as they demonstrate how Top 20% Benchmarking identifies profit improvement opportunities, supports business valuation discussions and helps accounting firms generate recurring advisory revenue while delivering greater value to clients.

WATCH THE RECORDING HERE

Special Affiliate Offer

As part of the collaboration between ESS BIZTOOLS and TaxFitness, a special affiliate opportunity is available for accounting firms, bookkeepers and business advisors. By incorporating Top 20% Benchmarking and Business Valuation services into your client offerings, you can help SMEs improve profitability, cash flow and business value while creating new recurring advisory revenue streams for your firm.

FIND OUT MORE AND SUBSCRIBE HERE

The opportunity is clear: help clients understand where they stand today and guide them towards a more profitable and valuable future.

Visit our website – www.essbiztools.com.au – to discover the detailed overview of the services provided by ESS BIZTOOLS. You are also welcome to contact us on 0418 190 181 or email .

Want to know more?

Visit www.essbiztools.com.au.

If you would like to have a discussion about how this concept of virtual CFO services can be supplied by Australian accounting firms please ring our Managing Director, Peter Towers, on 0418 190 181 and we will arrange a complimentary 45-minute Zoom meeting to discuss your firm’s position and to give you our advice.

We believe that this is the blueprint for the delivery of an enhanced range of services by Australian Accounting and Bookkeeping firms to assist SME businesses to add value to their businesses and to assist accountants and bookkeepers not only to attract but to retain outstanding talent who want to be involved in the delivery of “real accounting services”.

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