Close the Gap to Top 20% Performance
Accountants Minute 442
For decades, accounting firms have been rewarded for compliance.
But today, your clients need more than historical reporting.
They need structured, evidence-based guidance that improves performance.
If your goal is to become a Key Strategic Partner to your SME clients, benchmarking is not optional.
It is foundational.
Why is Benchmarking Critical?
Across Australia:
✅ 43% of small businesses make no profit
✅ 75% of owners earn less than the average Australian wage
✅ 30% of agribusinesses lose money each year
Small business owners are working harder than ever – yet many are not being financially rewarded.
This is the problem accounting firms must address.
And the firms that solve it will not be seen as tax preparers.
They will be seen as strategic partners.
Benchmarking Works Best When It Gets Uncomfortable
Some SME owners don’t like looking at top 20% performance numbers.
It can feel confronting.
But discomfort creates change.
When a client sees what the top performers in their industry achieve:
✅ Human pride activates
✅ Competitive instinct engages
✅ Improvement becomes intentional
Nobody wants to be left behind.
Benchmarking moves conversations from:
“You could improve margins”
to
“The top 20% achieve this. Why can’t we?”
That contrast drives action.
Have You Benchmarked Your Own Firm?
Before benchmarking your clients, start with your own firm.
It is difficult to credibly recommend performance measurement if you haven’t applied it internally.
As Peter Drucker said:
“You can’t manage what you don’t measure.”
Internal benchmarking gives your firm:
Confidence – You speak from experience
Credibility – Clients respect advice you apply yourself
Consistency – A profitable firm creates space for advisory
If you want clients to take benchmarking seriously, start with your own numbers.
The 5-Minute Business Benchmarking System
Developed by TaxFitness
This is not a 40-page report.
It is:
✅ One page
✅ One comparison
✅ One conversation
✅ No unpaid thinking
Clients are benchmarked against the top 20% performers in over 400+ industries – not averages.
Every gap is translated into dollars, not percentages.
In just five minutes, you can clearly show:
“If your business performed at Top 20% level, your profitability would improve by $X.”
This immediately creates an advisory requirement.
The real question becomes:
Does your client want to do something about it?
And will your firm guide them?
A Simple Example
Let’s look at cost of goods sold:
That is not theory.
That is commercial clarity.
Benchmarking removes opinion.
It provides proof.
If the Top 20% achieve it – why can’t we strive toward it?
The Action Plan: Turn Gaps Into Advisory
Benchmarking is the start – not the finish.
The identified gaps point directly to advisory priorities.
Recommend a structured 12-month advisory engagement focused on:
✅ Improving identified gaps
✅ Quarterly benchmark reviews
✅ Measurable progress
Consistency matters more than perfection.
A benchmark reviewed quarterly – even imperfectly – sis more valuable than a perfect report used once.
Implementing Benchmarking With Confidence
Clients do not change because of information.
They change because of contrast.
Benchmarking:
✅ Provides reference points
✅ Creates measurable targets
✅ Encourages negotiation with suppliers
✅ Improves margin discipline
✅ Aligns business decisions with evidence
This is what larger businesses do continuously.
Why shouldn’t your SME clients?
This is real accounting service.
This is helping create the future – not just recording the past.
Extend Benchmarking With The ESS BIZTOOLS Starter Package
Benchmarking identifies the gaps.
ESS BIZTOOLS provides the structured resources to close them.
Included in the Starter Package:
✅ Business Plus Newsletter (monthly client communication)
✅ Starting a Business Package
✅ Buying a Business Package
✅ R&D Tax Incentive guidance
✅ Debtors Management systems
✅ Trades Industry Charge-Out Calculator
✅ SME Needs Analysis
✅ Fee Setting for Professionals program
✅ 20+ Client Mentoring & Coaching Modules
These tools position your firm as proactive, structured and commercially focused.
They move your firm beyond compliance.
They support your goal of being recognised as a Key Strategic Partner.
Affiliate Partnership – Special Offer for 2026
EXPLORE TAXFITNESS AND SUBSCRIBE HERE
Final Thought
The Top 20% of businesses are already benefiting from structured financial management.
Why should your clients be disadvantaged?
Benchmarking makes advisory measurable.
Advisory makes change achievable.
Change builds recurring revenue.
And recurring revenue builds firms that lead the future of accounting.
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 .
Insights From Our Affiliates
If You’re Not Valuing Your Clients’ Businesses Every Year, You’re Just Doing Bookkeeping
Let’s be blunt.
If you don’t know what your client’s business is worth, you are not advising them on wealth. You are processing history.
Most business owners can tell you last year’s turnover. Almost none can tell you their enterprise value. Yet their business is usually their largest asset.
And we spend 90% of our time talking about tax. That is backwards.
An annual business valuation should sit alongside tax planning as a standard deliverable. Not when the client is “thinking of selling.” Not when a buyer appears. Every year.
Why?
Because value changes behaviour. When a client understands their business is worth $1.2 million — and that lifting profit by $80,000 could add $400,000 in value at a 5x multiple — the conversation shifts immediately.
Suddenly:
✅ Margin matters
✅ Recurring revenue matters
✅ Client concentration matters
✅ Systems matter
✅ Succession matters
Using the TaxFitness Business Valuations Database, accountants can access benchmark multiples across 400+ industries. That means your valuation discussion is data-backed, defensible and commercial.
If you are not delivering annual valuations, someone else eventually will — a buyer, a banker, or another advisor.
The Top 20% firms are not measured by how many returns they lodge. They are measured by how much enterprise value they help create.
More info: www.taxfitness.com.au
Make sure to use the Referral Code: ESS100 for $200 off your annual subscription.
EXPLORE TAXFITNESS AND SUBSCRIBE HERE
ESS BIZTOOLS Podcast
Live Podcast with Darren Gleeson of TaxFitness
Join us in this live podcast as Peter Towers and Darren Gleeson explain:
✅ How benchmarking creates advisory conversations
✅ How to implement structured advisory services
✅ How to confidently position your firm as a strategic partner
Thursday 12 March | 11:00 AM AEST
Questions can also be submitted directly to
Listen to more Accountants Minute Podcast episodes here
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”.
Tell us what you think
We would like to ensure that our articles remain relevant, insightful and informative. We value your input, so it would be appreciated if you could take a few minutes of your time to complete our survey – click here.
Thank you for your assistance in making Accountants Minute better.
Subscribe to Accountants Minute
Want to keep up to date with the latest issue of our Accountants Minute newsletter?
Click here to subscribe, free of charge.
