May
4, 2021
7 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
In this modern era of technological advancement, more and more accounting practitioners are transforming themselves and improving their skill sets to become successful entrepreneurs. It is evident that finance is an essential element for any business to remain thriving and flourishing, and an accounting practitioner plays the most significant role in any business. Moreover, in the present era, these accounting practitioners have expanded into domains like providing advisory assistance to medium and small businesses that comprise monetary evaluation, mergers and acquisitions, and government-sanctioned applications.
This change from the monotonous, moderate utility and compliance-driven accounting tasks to a tremendous value, imperative business, and tax guidance has taken place since the advent of the global pandemic where many accounting professionals have altered their way of working. Now they are operating endlessly to assist their clients in realizing their financial status, interpretation of the government tax policies, and all other finance-related problems that are important for streamlining a business. As a result of this, a tremendous revival can be seen in the profession of accounting, and a multitude of accounting professionals are working towards developing their abilities and modifying themselves into entrepreneurs.
How can accountants improve their skills to transform into successful entrepreneurs?
The Covid-19 pandemic has revolutionized everything, right from how people work to filing and presenting online accounts annually. Accountants are usually considered to be the one who holds more knowledge and technical know-how of finance and accounting instead of possessing great managerial and entrepreneurial capability. However, it has become imperative for the accounting professional to act and think like entrepreneurs with global advancement. And this is so because nowadays, everything has shifted towards an online platform, and people can easily keep hold of all their financial statements and books of accounts with just a simple mobile app.
This is the reason why accountants need to improvise on their area of expertise so that people do not count accounting as just another ordinary service but an essential commodity that they must hold for their business. Apart from this, all the financial knowledge that an accounting professional possesses can be an excellent springboard for commencing your corporation. They need to change their outlook a bit and start working towards brushing up on their entrepreneurial skills. Mentioned below are a few points that an accountant can work upon to mold into an entrepreneur:
1. Discovering and employing the latest technology
Technology has made many important changes, and it has further automated the world of finance and accounts. All the reports preparation, filing of reports, handling balance sheets, and profit and loss accounts have moved online. Further, the advent of cloud technology and offshore accounting has tremendously altered the entire scenario.
Now people can access numerous accounting software with features like data entry, tax return software, bill reconciliation statements, and many more with just one snap. Hence, all accounting professionals must leave behind the conventional accounting techniques and embrace these technological advances to grow and develop their abilities.
2. Remitting substance to patrons, not just the taxes and accounts
Contemporary life is agile and effective. Company owners require up-to-date and comprehensive erudition to manage their intricate trading determinations. Rather than simply handling a client’s financial statements and accounting returns, An accounting professional is required to present genuine market acumen and insight to business owners.
The professional must focus more on presenting management reports, cost-benefit evaluations, advantages and estimates of business divisions, external and internal benchmarking, and many other responsibilities. For more basic accounting responsibilities, the accountant can delegate or outsource these tasks. This outsourcing can help them concentrate more on the clients’ advanced requirements and further improve their skills.
Related: How and When to Grow Your Company’s Accounting Function
3. Looking for a dependable outsourcing accomplice
While it is important for accountants to focus on the more advanced needs of the clients, it is equally important for them to look for reliable and reputed outsourcing partners who can take up on the day to day accounting operations like filing tax returns, maintaining books of accounts, and many more.
This outsourcing of daily and basic accounting responsibilities can enable accountants to work on other important aspects that the patrons demand to further excel in their entrepreneurial front. Along with this, working and delegating your work to an offshoring partner can reduce the operation cost tremendously.
Related: Offshore Company Formation: A Springboard to Success
4. Effective utilization of Partner Time
What should be the best use of Partner Time? It should not at all doing compliance and spending long hours on the task as if it is a badge of honor. That’s not at all going to earn you high profits. Partners should spend time on delivering advisory work for high-end client work. Another role is a sales role, to meet prospective clients, build relations with them and help existing clients to provide value-added services to achieve their goals. Partners are leaders of the organization and work towards driving the performance of the business.
5. Focusing on a particular field
Being an expert in one field is always better than being a jack of all trades. As there are numerous technological advancements made in accounting, it is always advised that you must hold expertise in at least one field of modern accounting technology.
You can further employ advanced tools in your accounting techniques like cloud computing, online and offshore accounting, data sharing, and many more. This employment of technologically advanced tools can assist an accounting professional to render efficient and more specialized assistance along with handling a diverse array of companies and building upon their entrepreneurial skills.
6. Attaining cost advantages
Cost advantages were previously associated with the manufacturing industry. However, in the present era, plenty of client bases have enabled accountants to become cost-effective and accomplish economies of scale.
Accounting professionals can benefit from volume reductions and member commission on the online accounting tools they employ and can further create their Application Programming Interface (API) or even accounting applications to assist patrons of diverse industries effectively. It can also help accounting professionals further present extremely specific and expert assistance at a lower cost and in lesser duration and increase their administrative abilities.
Related: 4 Steps to Building an Unstoppable Offshore Dream Team in 24 Hours
The bottom line
Finance is an essential aspect of any running business, and an accountant is a key person that takes care of all these finance-related matters. There are various real-life instances where accountants have turned into successful entrepreneurs. Famous entrepreneurs like Kumar Mangalam Birla, Bob Parsons and John D. Rockefeller are leading names who started their careers as accounting professionals.
Suppose you are also a working accounting professional who desires to become a successful entrepreneur in the future. In that case, you must work on brushing up and enhancing your skills by considering the points mentioned above. It is not certain that you can become the next Kumar Manglam Birla or the next John Rockefeller; however, you can succeed in starting your own business and becoming a triumphant entrepreneur through hard work and determination. Hence it is advised to keep your thinking caps on and work towards your dream.
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