You can do Anything, but not Everything

By . Posted in Accountants and Business Advisors.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing three key rules we learnt about becoming a Xero based modern accounting practice.

The first lesson is to admit that you’re time poor and to delegate, especially if you have big growth plans like we did.

When you start out in business, you often need to wear a lot of hats – sales, marketing, administration, support, production, coffee maker, cleaner… You name it, it’s probably going to be your responsibility. A few months or years down the track and the business has grown up, and yet a high number of business owners struggle to move on from this ‘hands on everything’ stage. Although we’re all smart enough to realise this approach is neither the best use of our time or sustainable in the long run, business owners still struggle to delegate.

As a business owner, you need the time and the headspace to continue driving towards your goals. We’ve all heard the saying ‘the more time you spend in the business, the less time you can spend on the business.’

Without good delegation in place you’ll find your growth potential is restricted, as if it’s being smothered by an old clunky small business straitjacket.

For us, delegating meant:

Freeing up the owners time to focus on more exciting things, like growing the business and planning for the future.

Being one step closer towards creating self sufficient offices that managed themselves, without the owners day to day input.

Letting our staff specialise in what they were good at, which would create more efficiencies across our internal procedures.

Gearing us up for good scalability and sustainability, so that we wouldn’t burn out in the next phase of growth. Taking the highly time consuming and administrative sales process out of the busy owners workload, by delegating this task to a Business Development team member.

Not losing out on any quality or managerial control, as long as we maintained good training, systems and communication. (Being supported by integrated cloud systems was a big part of this, as they gave us good online connectivity, communication and collaboration as a team.)

Delegating may seem easier said than done at first. But once you’ve done it, everything is easier. It’s not rocket science, so here are a few simple suggestions to get you started:

Write a to do list and ask yourself – Is each task the best use of my time? Could I add more value to the business elsewhere? Is someone else in my team better at doing this than me?

Surround yourself with a good team who are well trained and resourced efficiently. When delegating to someone, clearly define their new responsibilities and expectations, and what sort of ongoing reporting you would like from them.

Simplify your accounting services into easy to sell and understand bundled packages (more on this next week), so you can delegate this process out to your new sales team. Unlike you, they will actually have the time to make sure that follow up call happens and that new business enquiries don’t slip through the radar.

Make a real effort to stay available to your team for assistance and guidance, especially in the early days. Remember you’re not abandoning them, you’re empowering them. Communication is key.

Ensure you’ve got in place the best cloud based business systems. Not only will this provide you with automated processing and online integration, but keep you connected and in control wherever you may be (because now that you’re delegating, prepare to be out of the office more!)

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We assume you didn’t get into business just to tidy up the paperwork after you’ve put the kids to bed, and we hope you’d prefer to be working towards a self sufficient business model rather than working all weekend.

So go on, admit you are time poor and start delegating.

David Jessep,
Managing Director of djca.

*This article was originally posted on AccountingWeb.

Sidekick Unwrapped London Registrations Open

By . Posted in Accountants and Business Advisors.

Sidekick Unwrapped London

13th and 14th June 2013
The Sanderson Hotel
London

Registrations now open!



Testimonials for Sidekick Unwrapped:

“We have no hesitation in recommending these incredible workshops.” – Richard Phillips, Xero.

“Can highly recommend the 100′s of hours you will save with the ‘goodies’ on this course” – Gayle Buchanan, Online Bookkeepers.

“Exactly what I was looking for” 


“Exceeded my expectations (which were high!)”


“Well delivered, clear, informative, good humour, excellent.”


“Good open discussion in a small group environment”

– Feedback from previous Sidekick Unwrapped attendees

Sidekick Unwrapped wrap up

By . Posted in Accountants and Business Advisors.

Our first Sidekick Unwrapped workshop went down last week in New Zealand and phwarr…What a couple of days it turned out to be!

Sidekick Unwrapped is a two day workshop we’ve developed for other accountants wanting to start up their own successful modern practices. (Why are we doing this? Well Dave put it nicely when he said “We’ve been through the hard yards over the last few years, completing reshaping and rebranding djca to become a modern practice. We think this knowledge is well worth contributing to the industry. The SME market is large and Accountants all have different strengths to offer, so why not collaborate and share in the success?”)

The first one ever was held last month at the Bolton Hotel in Wellington. 14 fantastic attendees came together for 8 in-depth sessions. Dave was joined on stage by Viv Brownrigg from The Accountants’ Republic as well as 4 other guest speakers from across the country. Everything you could ever want to start your own success story was discussed, from sales and marketing strategies right through to internal templates and processes.

To top it off, day one was finished with a tour through Xero’s lovely new headquarters and some delicious drinks and nibbles sponsored by the good folks at Cin7 and SmartPayroll.

We had an absolute blast putting this on and the feedback we’ve received so far has quite honestly blown us away. Sounds like the attendees had as much fun as we did!

“Exactly what I was looking for”
“Exceeded my expectations (which were high!)”
“Well delivered, clear, informative, good humour, excellent.”
“Good open discussion in a small group environment”


We are now very excited to announce that from early next year, we’ll be taking this show on the road. We have our eyes set on London, Melbourne and San Francisco – just to name a few. More details and dates to follow very soon!

For now, please send me an email at eva@djca.co.nz if you would like more information, to register your interest, or to request another location for Sidekick’s World Tour.

Looking forward to seeing you all soon!