The Naked Accountant

A series of ramblings on how we built flinder and the lessons along the way | The only newsletter dedicated to growing an outsourced finance function 🚀

AdvisoryAdvisory

Your firm is pitching advisory work. But could you deliver it, really?

Storytelling, persuasion skills, workshop facilitation, and more - the gap between what advisory requires and what accountants are trained to do is bigger than most firm owners want to admit.

Alastair Barlow

M&AM&A

I asked a lawyer: What are the worst mistakes owners make when selling their firm?

From vague valuation methods to restrictive covenants you didn't read closely enough, a bad deal is the result of many small slips rather than catastrophic errors. Here are 8 (easy) mistakes sellers can make - and how to avoid them yourself.

Alastair Barlow

AdvisoryAdvisory

The true cost of advisory: Can it actually damage your revenue, cashflow, and valuation?

The proposition of a £30k advisory project is hard to turn down. But what will it cost you in exchange - and is that trade-off worth it?

Alastair Barlow

M&AM&A

5 reasons why the best time to sell your firm is sooner than it feels

Most firm owners tell themselves (and me!) they’ll sell ‘when the time is right’. But, by then, the firm’s value has already started to slip and the cost of staying increases. Here’s why the best time to exit is sooner than it feels.

Alastair Barlow

People & TalentPeople & Talent

3 hiring mistakes I’ll never make again

7 years and hundreds of applicants later, these are the recruitment mistakes that cost us - and taught us - the most.

Alastair Barlow

Brand & marketingBrand & marketing

+1+1

The £8 investment that won us a client (+ other sales plays - part 2)

I’ve heard too many accountants say, “Selling isn’t for me”. But Sales and Marketing are critical functions of any sustainable business. We can’t rely on referrals.

Alastair Barlow

Brand & marketingBrand & marketing

+1+1

How to convert £3 million in revenue from LinkedIn (+ other sales plays - part 1)

I’ve heard too many accountants say, “Selling isn’t for me”. But Sales and Marketing are critical functions of any sustainable business. We can’t rely on referrals.

Alastair Barlow

People & TalentPeople & Talent

+1+1

What happens when a firm’s first hire isn’t an accountant

It’s 2017. Luke and I have just left PwC to launch our own firm (flinder). What role did we hire first?

Alastair Barlow

Operating modelOperating model

+1+1

We thought we were too cool for timesheets. We were wrong.

I’ll admit that flinder once thought it was too cool for timesheets - until we started using that data in a different, and much more powerful, way.

Alastair Barlow

People & TalentPeople & Talent

The delegation matrix that transformed flinder

Delegating is a challenge, but it has to be done. This is the exercise we used at flinder to step away from the day-to-day and deliver business value.

Alastair Barlow

Strategy & GrowthStrategy & Growth

Why the best goals only last 90 days (an intro to OKRs)

It might sound counterintuitive. But limit your goals in terms of scope and timeframe, and you might find you achieve more thanks to focus and accountability. That’s the logic and value of using OKRs.

Alastair Barlow

Artificial IntelligenceArtificial Intelligence

Is AI forcing accountants into the role of ‘system designer’?

As firms adopt AI, some become ‘builders’ while others simply ‘buy’. But is it just a matter of time before all accountants have to know how to build systems with AI?

Alastair Barlow