Crowd Sourced Funding Presents Advisory Work Opportunities

Advisory work is on the increase for accountancy firms as indicated by the 2018 Top 100 Accounting Firms Survey conducted by the “Financial Review”: “Number Crunchers Follow the Big Four into Advisory”.

The report indicated that the top 100 accountancy firms “grew by an average of 11.5%, thanks to their surging consulting divisions even as growth in core compliance work has slowed”.

David Smith, a well-known accounting industry visionary stated in the article “growth from core compliance services was elusive”.

Do you tell your clients everything they need to know …. or are you happy to ‘keep them in the dark’ until a problem arises?

Research indicates that many accountants are happy with the second option!

However, really smart accountants know that the future of their accountancy firms relies on becoming a ‘trusted advisor’ to many of their clients.

That means proactively researching and presenting ideas, information and advice to them, that could address many of their business needs.

One of the greatest SME business opportunities that’s currently available, but some accountants don’t even know it exists, is Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising.

The Australian government’s decision to legalise the opportunity for small proprietary companies, with turnovers up to $25 million per annum, to raise capital direct from the public gives small and medium-sized accountancy firms a tremendous opportunity to offer a broader range of advisory services to their clients.

It is expected that the vast majority of companies, that will be seeking to raise capital from Crowd Sourced Funding, will be the clients of small and medium-sized accountancy businesses situated all around Australia – not just in the capital cities.  This presents a significant opportunity to those accountancy firms to emphasise their “trusted advisor” relationship with their small and medium-sized clients by being able to offer a new range of advisory services to those clients seeking services to assist their companies to grow.

The “Financial Review” article also discussed research and development and indicated that research and development is lacking in smaller firms – this comment would have related to smaller firms in the top 100 list rather than the 9,900 other accounting firms in Australia.  The article indicated “most firms did not have the capacity to fund their own research and development and were highly dependent on the industry’s technology suppliers for solutions”.

An additional restraint on the development of research and development by smaller firms is that many firms do not have the team resources available to undertake research and development into new products.

ESS BIZTOOLS has committed the funds and resources to the development of a comprehensive Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising product package which is now being made available, on a subscription basis, to accountants situated throughout Australia.

Some accountants believe that their clients will not be interested in Crowd Sourced Funding.  We believe that it is crucial that there is a discussion with clients who fall within the “Crowd Sourced Funding Potential Category” to enable the client to decide whether they would like to avail themselves of the opportunity of being able to raise capital.

The ESS BIZTOOLS' Crowd Sourced Funding Product Package includes a Client Matrix (Click here) to assist in the determination as to whether a client fits within the “Crowd Sourced Funding Potential Category”.

Accountants have, over the years, earned the classification of “trusted advisor” to small and medium-sized businesses and have a responsibility to ensure that services currently being supplied contribute to the retention of the high level of support for accountants as the “trusted advisor”.

A leading accountancy industry CEO, Mr Mike Rich, Attaché Software, identified a significant problem through accountants assuming that the client already knew about the “Single Touch Payroll” system which was introduced by the Australian Taxation Office from 1 July 2018 for businesses employing more than 20 people when he commented in “For Accountants” October edition “the new payroll reporting is a door opener as it impacts medium businesses the most.  But only one in 20 say their accountant has even mentioned it which puts your trusted advisor status at risk.  This is still an opportunity to re-engage with your medium business clients and get talented young staff involved.”

There is a significant opportunity available for accountants to join some of your clients and prospects on the journey to raise capital utilising Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising thus confirming your status as the “trusted advisor”.

ESS BIZTOOLS' Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising Product Package gives you all of the resources that you will need to be able to:

• Train your team on Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising.
• Market your firm’s willingness to be involved in assisting clients and prospects to prepare themselves to be able to utilise Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising.
• Offer the professional services to assist your clients and potentially some prospects on the Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising Journey.

Do yourself a favour.

Take about 2 minutes to view our latest video and get an overview of how your practice could benefit from your SME clients using this newly-legalised process to raise capital, without the need for bank loans and personal guarantees.

As a 'trusted advisor', don’t you owe it to your clients to be across every development that could potentially benefit them?

Click here - (CSF Learn More Video 2 minutes)

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me:

Email:

Telephone 1800 232 088

Have a great day!