The Importance Of An Entrepreneurial Mindset When Marketing Your Accounting Firm

The Importance Of An Entrepreneurial Mindset

As an accountant you are highly skilled.  You have done years of training.  Every year you are also required to do even more professional development. Your industry is complex, heavily legislated and, especially of late, always changing.

You should be proud of your knowledge and expertise, you are a professional expert.

The problem with all that training and study is that you were never actually taught how to grow your firm. You didn’t cover marketing.

And growing a business is very different to being an accountant.  To successfully build your firm you will need to develop an entrepreneurial mindset.

What Is An Entrepreneurial Mindset

The Financial Times tell us:

“Entrepreneurial Mindset refers to a specific state of mind which orientates human conduct towards entrepreneurial activities and outcomes. Individuals with entrepreneurial mindsets are often drawn to opportunities, innovation and new value creation.

Characteristics include the ability to take calculated risks and accept the realities of change and uncertainty.”

But what does that mean when related to marketing and growing your accounting firm?

It tells us that you will need to be bold, to look at creating more value for your clients than you have traditionally, and that there will be an element of risk and uncertainty involved.

Let’s have a look at some of the characteristics of an Entrepreneurial Mindset.

1. Disciplined

Successful Entrepreneurs are focused on making their business work and can eliminate any distractions. They are consistent in all of their activities and can maintain this for as long as needed.

2. Customer Focused

Without the customer your business does not exist. The main priority of your firm should always be to satisfy the customers needs, and innovate or evolve to meet new demands. Business is not always about the most advanced product or service, but about providing something that the market wants.

3. Always Learning

Being in business, and growing a business, is a continual learning process. You must discover new ideas and techniques to use, implement them and measure their success. Accounting as an industry is changing, your customers are changing, technology is changing. All of this means that you must be constantly learning and up skilling in order to stay competitive.

4. Bold. Not Afraid Of Failure

Fail fast and often. It is all part of the learning.   You need to discover what works and what doesn’t.   Often that can only done through failure. But Entrepreneurs don’t stay down, they immediately get back up and start again.

5. Open Minded

Every moment can possibly present a new opportunity, or challenge. An Entrepreneurial Mindset allows you to see everything and understand what is working, and what isn’t. It also means that you can adapt quickly to take advantage of changing circumstances.

6. Strong People Skills

Business is all about people. They might be clients, the employees serving your clients, other business owners you’ve met networking or peers and colleagues within the accounting industry. The people that you interact with, and your ability to communicate and inspire them, will determine your ability to successfully grow your firm.

7. Self Starter

Entrepreneurs are the very epitome of self starters. They see that something should or could be done, and they start it themselves. This makes them pro active, progressive and in control.

8. Listener

It is important to surround yourself with people that possess skills and talents that you don’t, and listen to what they have to say. Business growth and success is formed of many things, a few of which are collaboration and communication.

9. Competitive

You are in business because you know you are good at what you do. And most likely believe that you are better at it than others. And that’s good. Embrace your skills and talents and shout about your successes. You should be playing to win in your business.

10. Leadership

Not only are you skilled at leading yourself and determining your path, but you are skilled at leading others. An Entrepreneirual Mindset gives you an understanding of the importance of teamwork, as well as the need to appreciate others, support them and reward them accordingly.

These 10 attributes are all part of the larger Entrepreneurial Mindset. These qualities give entrepreneurs the edge that they need to successfully market and grow their businesses.

By cultivating these qualities you will be better able to take position yourself and your firm in the marketplace. You will grow further and faster than you would otherwise.

These are also qualities that you can encourage in your firm amongst your staff. By using the right training, incentives and by giving your employees permission to share and try ideas you will be fostering an entrepreneurial spirit throughout your firm.

This will only lead to greater involvement from all staff in growing your business.