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Overcoming the Profit Squeeze: How Partnerships Help Accountants Deliver More Value for Less Effort
Episode 4 • 22nd January 2026 • The Connected Accountant • Wayne Findlay, Talila Kroy, Ian Aldridge
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Episode Summary:

In this episode, Talila Kroy, Wayne Findlay, and Ian Aldridge tackle the profit squeeze facing accounting firms head-on. Since COVID, professional services have seen a relentless race to the bottom, with clients shopping purely on price. Discover how strategic partnerships offer accountants a path to escape price competition, attract better clients, and future-proof their practices against AI disruption.

What You'll Learn:

  1. Why the last five years have seen a race to the bottom in professional services and how to escape it
  2. Why price-shopping clients are your worst clients and how to avoid attracting them
  3. How to use partnership marketing through workshops, events, and shared databases
  4. Why clients referred by partners are far less likely to haggle over fees
  5. How AI will create another race to the bottom and why partnerships protect you
  6. How offshoring creates capacity for senior staff to focus on high-value advisory work
  7. Why personal partnerships are essential for surviving the next 5-10 years of disruption

Key Takeaways:

  1. Clients referred by trusted partners are far less likely to negotiate fees because trust has been transferred
  2. Partnership marketing through workshops and events gives you access to thousands of targeted prospects at minimal cost
  3. AI will create another wave of price competition, making personal partnerships even more critical for protection
  4. Offshoring lower-level work creates capacity for senior accountants to focus on high-value advisory services
  5. Having 20-50 businesses continually referring work provides stability that marketing alone cannot deliver

Notable Quotes:

"The more personal partnerships we can create, the more we've got a chance of not just surviving the next five to 10 years, but also thriving." - Ian Aldridge

"If you're an accountant and you want to stand out, have a workshop and use your partners to promote that workshop on your behalf." - Wayne Findlay

"Our job is to be the very best, to provide the very highest quality of service and to showcase that to our partners so that they're so delighted with the results that we get their clients, that they just keep giving us clients." - Talila Kroy

"The clients that we've found that have come through from referral partners are far less likely to haggle over fees. They've been told by their accountant, 'Hey, you need to go and see Ian and get this stuff done,' and they just go ahead and do it." - Ian Aldridge

"If you're getting referrals because you're the lowest price, then you need to talk to the people that are referring to you and say, 'Don't send me those people.'" - Wayne Findlay


Resources Mentioned:

  1. The Back Room Growth Calculator (thebackroomop.com) - helps firms design their future based on compliance versus advisory mix
  2. Book: "Someone Has to Be The Most Expensive. Why Shouldn't It Be You?" by Andrew Griffiths
  3. Partner Suitcase Program (emple.com.au) - sales enablement for partnership marketing

Roundtable Events

Information, including registration details, for Roundtable events for Accountants: https://thebackroomop.com/thepartnershipeffect 

Panelist Information:

Talila Kroy - Emple

Wayne Findlay - The Back Room

Ian Aldridge - Progressive Legal

Production:

Co-host - Anthony Perl - Podcasts Done For You


Transcripts

Anthony Perl:

Overcoming the profit Squeeze.

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How Partnerships help accountants

deliver more value for less effort.

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Welcome to the Connected Accountant,

the podcast where we explore

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how strategic partnerships can

transform accounting practices.

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I'm your co-host Anthony Pearl,

and today we're addressing one

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of the biggest challenges facing

accountants, the profit squeeze.

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That relentless pressure to do more,

faster and for less, and we're revealing

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how partnerships are the key to breaking

free from the race to the bottom.

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Ian Aldridge: The more personal

partnerships we can create, the more we've

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got a chance of not just surviving the

next five to 10 years, but also thriving.

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Wayne Findlay: If you're an accountant

and you want to stand out, have a

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workshop and use your partners to

promote that workshop on your behalf.

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Talila Kroy: To be the partner of

choice, you have to show value.

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Anthony Perl: Joining me today are

our three regular panelists who bring

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incredible expertise to the connected

accountant, t LaCroix from Emel,

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Wayne Finley from the Backroom, and

Ian Aldridge from Progressive Legal.

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Let's get into what will make you.

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The connected accountant?

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Well, everyone, we have a topic that I

think is dear to the heart of accountants,

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but probably dear to the heart of a lot of

businesses as well, because the whole idea

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of the profit squeeze and the expectation

that you have to do more and earn less for

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it is something that we all have to deal

with, but accountants particularly have to

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deal with and ultimately where to come to.

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Why partnerships.

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Is a big factor in helping

solve that problem.

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But Ian, if I could start off

with you, this whole expectation

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of what people want, how fast

they want it, and how little they

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want to pay for it is a reality.

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Ian Aldridge: Yeah, I think

especially in the last.

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Five years since COVID, we've seen

a race to the bottom, I think, in

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a lot of professional services.

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And it has been an endless bugbear, I'm

sure for accountants, lawyers, and other

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professional services alike, to try and

convince clients that it's not the best

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option to go with the cheapest one.

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And more recently, we know that Australian

businesses and New Zealand businesses

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are really struggling because when I get.

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Potential clients coming to the firm and

saying, Hey, make this quote the sharpest

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you can because my boss has told me to

get three quotes and go with the cheapest.

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You know that businesses are

struggling out there, so they're

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really watching their pennies

very, very carefully right now.

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But we all know that the phrase the poor

man pays twice, and you'll get them on

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the next round when they realize that

going with the cheapest option is not.

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Great.

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Or we'll have to be involved in a

litigation matter and the firm that they,

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that did the work for them, didn't do a

good job and then they got in trouble.

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So we then have to clean it up.

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I'm sure it's the same with accountants.

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You know, how many clients did you pick

up, Wayne from previous accountants, where

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they've gone to a previous accountant

that they really shouldn't have because

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they made a determination just on price

alone and they realize, no, we need to

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find a reasonably priced solution for

our business, not the cheapest one.

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Wayne Findlay: They always

say, you need the value.

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Don't change on price.

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Look at value, and they were your

worst clients that you got the ones

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that just were shopping around,

we wouldn't even look at them.

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To be honest.

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It wasn't worth it because you

know that someone else will.

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You get them on price and then next

thing you know, they've gone to someone

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that they found is cheaper and one

they probably didn't listen to your

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advice that you gave them as well.

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Because they wanted it for nothing.

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Ian Aldridge: It's a real

temptation, isn't it?

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'cause ultimately we want

to help people, right?

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And they say, oh, you know,

quote from this other firm, this.

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For this much, and you look

at the other firm, you go,

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oh, don't, don't go with gosh.

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Like, fine, you know, we'll, we'll price

match, we'll price match on this occasion.

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But that's really just to save your

ass because you're not gonna get

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the same level of, you might make

exceptions for some clients that you're

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like, I really want your business.

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But if you do it for everyone, you know,

you're just contributing to this race to

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the bottom and cheapening your brand and

cheapening the value of your services.

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Anthony Perl: I think one of the

interesting things that, that reminds me

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of a book, and I know tulle, you'll be

familiar with the author Andrew Griffith,

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who wrote this fabulous book called

Someone has to Be The Most Expensive.

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Why shouldn't it Be You?

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And I think it's a question

of not driving to the bottom.

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I don't know, you necessarily have

to be the most expensive, but it's

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actually about delivering quality.

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And allowing the services that you've

got to be added onto by partnerships

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that are going to help you deliver

that quality more consistently?

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Talila Kroy: Yes.

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I think that almost every client we

have, because our core product, our

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core solution is the sales suitcase.

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We help visionary business

founders to express their value

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and step out of selling and enable

anyone else to do it for them.

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And almost all of them have massive

intangible value in their business.

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They're doing things better.

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They're doing things to a higher

standard or differently to their

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competitors, and of course that

means that they cost a bit more.

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But the layer of value, like

the ROI that they give clients

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is many, many, many layers.

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That communication piece has to be both

in your sales communication, client

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acquisition, but also with partners.

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Because to be the partner of

choice, you have to show value.

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Show value to clients that

exceeds that in other partners.

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And once you can do that, you can

attract partners of the same quality.

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What you offer the clients

is not just yourself.

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You offer a network of quality and

that's something that people can't

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get anywhere else, and that's not

something that they can price match.

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And that's how you stand out.

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Anthony Perl: Yeah, and

I think standing out is.

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Incredibly important, isn't it, Wayne?

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And giving people that freedom to

be able to stand out by having the

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right partnerships in place so you

can stand out for the right reasons.

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Wayne Findlay: Yeah, I think especially

with AI right now, and I think you

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can stand out and I think you can show

your partners how you can stand out.

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And I was thinking about my in the

previous podcast about how would

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you promote yourselves nowadays

with accountants and trying to

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get new clients in with partners.

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And I talked about

doing some AI workshops.

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Then people get confused as far as

partnering as just sending you leads.

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But really it's about sharing

your databases as well.

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So if you're an accountant and you

wanna stand out, have a workshop.

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Use your partners to promote that

workshop on your behalf, and then

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you'll get the leads out of it.

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So don't just think, send me leads.

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Think about, you know, the wider network

of, of, if you've got, how many say

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we've say we have eight partners in your.

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Client centricity type setup, and each

of them might have two or:

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So when you have an event,

imagine the marketing that you

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can have to get to your event.

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That's what Alila is trying to show

as far as how you can do things, and

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it's something that we forget a lot.

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Talila Kroy: Exactly my, and not

only that, but you're speaking

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directly to the people that matter.

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Wayne Findlay: Mm.

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Talila Kroy: Like each of those partners

you already know, they have the clients

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that need what you offer and that you can

express the value very clearly to them.

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Whereas when you go out cold, half

of the marketing, it's just like a

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lot of it falls outta the bucket.

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'cause it's not really for those people.

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You're kind of showing a lot of people.

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Whereas when you're partner marketing,

not only it's far more affordable

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and trust is transferred, but you

are speaking to target markets 'cause

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each of those partners has their

own audience of target markets.

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Super powerful way of doing things.

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And like Wayne said, you can

run amazing events with ps.

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One of our clients actually does.

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He has JVs with a number.

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He's in the financial services industry.

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He trains people how to

use stocks and shares.

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His whole approach is marketing

partnerships, and over the last seven,

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eight years, he's built an incredible

number of clients, thousands of clients

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who study this, and it's all through the

partnerships that he has with coaching

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organizations and other companies where

he runs events with them and gets leads.

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Ian Aldridge: You run,

run a podcast as well too.

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So have Anthony.

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Wayne Findlay: Yes.

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Ian Aldridge: You know, leveraging off

the partner's knowledge you have Anthony.

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Organize a podcast with one of your

referral partners and you really don't

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need to do much, 'cause you don't have

to really prepare much yourself for it.

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You just get the partner to present and

give them a piece of up-to-date knowledge

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on something that they've learned or

something new in the market, new in law,

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new in marketing, new in ai, et cetera.

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And then you are leveraging off their

knowledge and giving that benefit

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to the clients, which raises your

profile and shows them, hey, they're

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on the ball, they're all over this.

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Talila Kroy: This particular podcast, it's

because a group of partners got together

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to create this, to share our perspectives.

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And you are listening to

it on one of our networks.

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It might be on Ian's,

it might be on Wayne's.

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It could be on mine.

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So that's the power of it.

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More people will listen to it

and you'll get more perspectives.

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That's partnership, marketing in action.

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And the beauty of the podcast

too is that if I wanna introduce

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someone to Wayne or to.

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Ian, I can say here, listen to them.

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This is who they are, and immediately they

can connect through that and partnership.

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It's really important to provide

partners with assets that can

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promote you, that give Gluc client

an understanding of who you are.

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And this is an example of one of

those that these things can create.

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Ian Aldridge: I think Tila, just on that

point, I remember now when you sent one

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of the first emails to me, you had a link.

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To an interview that you had

with someone about partnerships?

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Talila Kroy: Yes,

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Ian Aldridge: and And I watched it.

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Talila Kroy: There you go.

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I didn't even know that.

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Ian Aldridge: Yep.

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Talila Kroy: And it's so powerful because

people then understand your philosophy.

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They feel like they know you.

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And so one of the things we do, and one

of the things I encourage every accountant

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to do for their partners is create assets

that showcase what their partners do,

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that they can give to their clients,

so that clients understand that value.

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And for an example, for me.

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Wayne works with 150 accounting

firms around the world.

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They've got an incredible growth

calculator that literally will

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help a firm to design its future.

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Like how much do I need in compliance?

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How much do I need in advisory based on

my current numbers and my future numbers?

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Put it all in and you get like a roadmap.

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That is something that I send clients

to because it's an existing asset

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that I can just refer people to.

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And I think we should link

maybe to this episode.

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Yeah, I'm just

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Wayne Findlay: put it in there, Anthony.

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Yeah,

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Talila Kroy: send, yeah,

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Anthony Perl: we'll add

that into the equation.

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But I think it's, you know, it

goes back to this whole idea

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of working smarter, right?

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I mean, I think that, you know,

if there is a squeeze on profit,

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you have to deliver more.

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And the great thing that happens

in terms of an accounting practice,

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and again, is similar to what

we've done here and what you were

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talking to Ian, is that by having.

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You know, a group of people, a group

of partners together in one, you're

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actually delivering more for everyone.

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'cause you're showing how

you can work together.

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You're showing the quality of different

partners and the relationship building

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and from your own perspective, all

of the partners are talking about

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you on a consistent basis as well.

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Because of course everyone

wants to share the podcast.

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So, I mean, you know, that is all

about in working smarter, isn't it?

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I mean that's, you know,

just an example of it.

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Ian Aldridge: Yeah.

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And I think we all know, and especially

when you start to ramp up as a business,

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your time starts to get really stretched

very thin across all these areas, right?

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And you've gotta be the technician, you've

gotta be the trainer, you've gotta be the

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mentor, you've gotta be the supervisor,

you've gotta be the marketing expert.

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You've gotta be as much as you can over

the numbers, which put my hand up and say,

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I'm not one of the things that I thought.

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There's a couple of points.

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Wa, you were saying, you know, like

trying to stand out in this day and age.

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I think the biggest opportunity for us

as professional advisors, accountants,

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and lawyers, is that everyone out

there, and this is what we sort of

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realize when we're surveying the

market, they're all fairly gray.

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They all look the same, their websites

look the same, their marketing looks

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the same, their branding looks the

same, their messaging looks the same.

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So it's actually really easy for us.

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To stand out.

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It's like if we put our little

pinky out, it looks like we're

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putting our whole arm out.

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Right.

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So it's actually, there's a really

big opportunity for us as accountants

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and, and lawyers and professional

advisors to stand out in this crowd

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of gray men and women that all look.

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Talk the same.

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Also, like clients kind of think that

we all come out of university, like,

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and you know that old Monty Python where

they, you know, they stab the people

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and they come out in the conveyor belt.

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Wayne Findlay: Yeah.

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Ian Aldridge: You know,

and they all look the same.

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You know, like they all, they

all think that we come out.

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Being exactly the same and wearing

the same uniform and, and being

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rolled out on a conveyor belt, right?

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But all you have to do is just have a

green tie, you know, and you'd be like,

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whoa, that person's really different.

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What makes them different?

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And people are interested.

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And so having something like this when you

are presenting to potential partners makes

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you stand out from the crowd so much.

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So there's a real big opportunity

to be different and look

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different and act different.

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And you don't really have to

do that much to stand out,

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Wayne Findlay: have your

own BNI network effectively.

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Think about your partners as your own

BNI group without paying the BNI fees.

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And, and the other thing is

you can choose who goes in it.

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So you can have like-minded

people in your network.

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And when you sit around the table,

you know, and you have it structured.

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You can think of things that you

can do and things like, Hey, there's

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a cricket match and such and such.

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Let's go buy some tickets and we'll

go and invite some clients to that

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and we can do blah, blah, blah.

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We can have a speaker.

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You could, there's so much you can

do when you've got a good group of

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people together that you can think of.

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I like events.

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I think events will be a good thing to do.

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'cause then you can share a market.

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Put people in a good environment,

load them up with alcohol, and then

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you'll sign a lot of contracts.

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So there's, there's all, there's

a ways and means of doing things.

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Talila Kroy: People love events and also

what people love off is where another

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way of differentiating, like Ian said.

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Having a good deck and having a good

messaging to a partner or a client

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immediately differentiates you.

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But even further than that,

you can use partnerships to

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differentiate you to add value adds.

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Like we said, like I have this AI

solution, I have these different things.

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You have all these layers that you

can offer to differentiate you, and

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a lot of times one plus one can equal

three in partnerships, and that's

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when it's really cool, like you take.

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My partner strategy and Anthony Pearl's

podcasting, put it together into

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Thought Leader Podcast for partnerships,

one plus one now equals three.

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There's like a new category that you

can create and if you are strategic,

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you can just, like Wayne said, with the

events, and you can be very creative.

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You can be very creative about how you.

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Find a gap in the market for what

a client needs, bolt on something

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of the partners and build something

that's stronger than both.

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And I think if you look at the

SaaS world, particularly the

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technology world, they kill that.

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Like all the big SaaS companies,

they all go through CHA channels

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and partners and bundling,

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Wayne Findlay: and they have good

budgets through, they all have

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budgets to spend on partnerships.

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So they're great at having events

and collaboration with, yeah.

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Talila Kroy: Exactly.

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And if you look at like, I don't know

if you've heard of things like the

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Starbucks and the Spotify partnership,

the Apple and the Nike partnership,

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like there's so many examples out

there in the big world of partnerships,

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what, what they've achieved together.

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Whereas if you think about a lot of

people, particularly business owners,

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they can get very stuck in the run of the

mill and feel very lonely and feel like.

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That race to the bottom is all they've

got, like their world closes in on

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them and they don't see opportunity.

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They don't see that there's

actually freedom there.

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And again, like I always talk about

the six key benefits of partnerships.

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One of them is more and better clients.

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The other one is marketing

more effectively.

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But what about.

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Differentiation.

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You can do so much in that space.

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Early on, we had a client that used

to do tenders for, they were in a

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very specific niche and they didn't

have a specific solution that a

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lot of tendering companies wanted.

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It wasn't really part of their

niche, so the procurement managers

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would have to get separate.

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They bundled it into their solution

so that it was like for the first

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time ever, it was available in one

thing, one united thing, and that was.

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Made them stand out compared to all the

other tenders, so you can do so much.

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I

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Ian Aldridge: think that point as

well too, Lia, about, you know, we're

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talking about the profit motive and

getting a bit more of a profit margin.

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The clients that we've found that have

come through from referral partners are

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far less likely to haggle over fees.

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They're far less likely to try.

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Beat you down or say, is that the

best price you can do as well?

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Like, they've been told by their

account, Hey, you need to go and

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see Ian and get this stuff done.

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And they, they go, okay, cool.

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I'll go to Ian and get this stuff done.

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Like, you need to go to

Wayne, you need to go and get.

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They're sorted, they're, they've

been told to do that and they

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:

just go ahead and usually do it.

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And unless the price is like, whoa,

geez, that is way more than I expected.

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Right.

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There's far higher chance that they

are gonna be less cost conscious about

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:

it because they know they need to

do it and it needs to get done, and

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it's just a cost to doing business.

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Wayne Findlay: Yeah.

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The clients that you get from

referrals aren't fee sensitive.

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Normally they've come for you

because they know you're gonna get

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good value, good advice, and not

because you're the lowest price.

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And if you're getting referrals

because you're the lowest price,

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then you need to talk to the

people that are referring to you.

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And so don't send me those people.

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:

Yeah,

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Talila Kroy: exactly.

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Exactly.

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Ian Aldridge: Yeah.

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Send Send them.

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Send them elsewhere.

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Talila Kroy: Yeah.

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Ian Aldridge: The other thing

as well too, right, is with ai.

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There's going to be another race to the

bottom because if service providers are

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going to be able to provide what they

do at a lower and reduce their costs of

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production, the temptation is going to

be for them to pass those on, or part

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:

of those efficiencies onto the client.

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:

So we're gonna see another race, I think,

of cheaper service providers that will.

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Cheapen the value of

our professions again.

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:

So I think the trick for us as

professional service providers is going

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to be how do we leverage AI to provide

better service, to provide better

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:

output, provide more insights to clients

so they stick with you instead of.

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Perhaps going and DIYing, like I think

I already know that clients are putting

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:

their profit and loss and balance

sheets and outputs into probably

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:

chat GPT and saying, Hey, what do I

need to do to improve my business?

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:

Right.

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Yeah.

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Anthony Perl: Yeah.

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:

I mean, that's the thing, isn't it?

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If you are putting in at

the bare minimum, you.

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:

Run the risk of everyone overriding

you, but it's also measuring

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:

that with just meeting standards

because there's an expectation

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:

and that's part of the problem.

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The pace that we are moving at today

is increasing the expectations of what

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:

you're going to deliver and the speed

at which you're going to deliver.

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:

And so when that's the case,

you need to be able to free up

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:

resources to be able to deliver.

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:

More partnerships help you with that.

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:

I mean, Wayne, if I can

bring you in as well.

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:

I mean, partnering with your business

as well helps free up time for

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:

people to be able to deliver more

in certain areas and offer greater

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:

value for what's being invested.

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:

Wayne Findlay: Yeah, well, I

think that we talk about capacity.

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:

So you need capacity in your senior

management and your partners.

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:

That you can spend more time

doing higher value type work.

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And one of the things I always talk to

accountants when they're looking at using

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:

us is they're probably doing stuff at a

level that could be done at a lower level.

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:

So if you look at a perimeter of the skill

levels of accounting, they're doing stuff

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:

that could be done by a junior accountant

that a senior accountant is doing.

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:

So.

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When they work with us, I say, Hey,

why don't you hire people offshore that

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:

can do that lower level type perimeter

type work, the compliance and everybody

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:

moves up a a layer and onshore, so

therefore your senior accountants,

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:

your partners can do more advisory.

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:

I know senior accountants

are hard to get in.

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:

No Australasia, the head

hunters are out there.

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:

They're going from firm to firm to firm.

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:

You know, big salaries.

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:

So if you're paying big salaries,

you need to get your value.

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:

So get them to do advisory, not just

doing sets of financials, because you're

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:

not gonna get your return on investment.

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:

So if you get your senior managers doing

advisory, you can afford to pay them more.

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:

The senior accountants are actually

happier because they're doing

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:

the type of work they want to do.

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:

It's about getting your mix

right and that's where we help

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:

offshoring helps, helps to do that.

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:

Talila Kroy: That's also where

partnerships help, because like guys

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:

have said, those clients that come

in from partners are there for value.

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:

They're there for advice,

they're there for trust.

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:

They're not there because of the race

to the bottom, the price, race to the

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:

bottom, the best place to harvest.

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:

Good advisory clients is through

partners who are adjacent advisors and

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:

who support adjacent service providers

and advisors and professionals who

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:

support the client's journey and have

their client's interests at heart and

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:

know that if they refer to you, their

client's gonna get what they need.

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:

Ian Aldridge: We're already getting

clients and potential clients coming to us

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:

saying, I've generated my terms using ai.

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:

Can you just like have a quick look over

them and make sure they're compliant?

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:

But like I haven't yet seen a client

come from a referral partner with that

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:

because obviously that type of client's

very different to one that I trust that

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:

you know what you're doing, you'll do the

good job and be affordable and reasonable.

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:

Rather than, oh, I've done this myself.

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:

Surely you can just like look over

it really quickly and just like 15

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:

minutes or a half an hour worth of work.

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:

That'd be great.

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:

Talila Kroy: That's the A 20 rule.

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:

We don't want clients that wanna

take advantage of us basically,

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:

or who don't understand the

layers of value that we bring.

433

:

Like there are a lot of risks

involved in doing what you just said

434

:

with chat GPT and whilst at start.

435

:

It's not the right thing to do, just

like doing your tax returns the wrong

436

:

way or you, you drafting, you know,

437

:

Anthony Perl: that's where the,

the importance of partnerships

438

:

is so important, right?

439

:

Because when partners understand the

quality of what you deliver and the

440

:

very nature of what it is and they

value that service, it's much easier

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:

for them to sell that on to people

so they're not walking in the door

442

:

with, this is the chat GPT solution.

443

:

What do you think?

444

:

Uh,

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:

Talila Kroy: our job is to be the

very best, to provide the very highest

446

:

quality of service and to showcase

that to our partners so that they're

447

:

so delighted with the results that

we get their clients, that they just

448

:

keep giving us clients that is as far

away from price shopping as it can be.

449

:

And that doesn't mean

that we're expensive.

450

:

Not at all.

451

:

We are value for money, not an ever

expensive, but we're also not trying to

452

:

be, you know, the black and gold version.

453

:

Whatever it is that's not that, that's not

good for anyone apart from anything else.

454

:

Like Wayne said, good talent

is expensive and you know, good

455

:

quality people are, are expensive.

456

:

So you pay get what you pay for

and you want us to run a fantastic

457

:

service with all the right stuff in

it, you know, fair value for money,

458

:

Ian Aldridge: money.

459

:

I think if we collectively want to

future proof our business with what's

460

:

coming in the next five to 10 years.

461

:

I think the more personal partnerships

we can create, the more we've got a

462

:

chance of not just surviving the next

five to 10 years, but also thriving.

463

:

Because I think we will see a

very tumultuous environment in

464

:

the next five to 10 years as AI

disrupts every single industry.

465

:

And I think the more we can all capture

466

:

Wayne Findlay: Mm,

467

:

Ian Aldridge: effectively a bit of an old

school way of referrals, but you know,

468

:

sometimes the old ways are the best.

469

:

Wayne Findlay: Yeah.

470

:

Ian Aldridge: And I think that's

sort of proven in the pudding, right?

471

:

And if you've got like at

least 20 to 50 businesses

472

:

continually referring your work.

473

:

Then you've got much better chance of

getting through these next 10 years

474

:

really well, because while everyone

sorts themselves out and works through

475

:

this, does their own thing, stuffs

it up, gets a fine from the A TO

476

:

because they've got their AI agent

to file their tax returns for them.

477

:

You know, like.

478

:

There, there's gonna be a sorting

out I think of, of people when

479

:

they realize, yeah, I think I'll

just get someone else to do that.

480

:

Oh, that's not my highest and

best value in the business is

481

:

doing all this stuff with ai.

482

:

I'm just gonna let someone else that's

an expert that uses AI to do that.

483

:

Wayne Findlay: I think

you have to embrace ai.

484

:

My daughter was at a job fair.

485

:

She does it.

486

:

And guess who are hiring

all the IT people?

487

:

All the grads.

488

:

Big four.

489

:

Deloit's, PWC.

490

:

What?

491

:

Why are they hiring grads?

492

:

Anthony Perl: Yeah,

493

:

Wayne Findlay: because

accounting's changing.

494

:

So you have to embrace change.

495

:

So the opportunity for accountants is

look at the mix of who you're employing.

496

:

Now, maybe you should look at hiring some

people with it or automation experience,

497

:

because that's where the opportunities

are gonna lie within your client base.

498

:

Or partner with someone that can do

that work for you and you maybe you,

499

:

you jv with them to, to deliver it.

500

:

So there's a number of different ways

to future proof your accounting firm.

501

:

I think.

502

:

Talila Kroy: I think speaking of that,

we've already touched on partnerships

503

:

reduce client acquisition costs, so

that helps with the profit squeeze.

504

:

It's basically, instead of spending

a lot of money on marketing,

505

:

you're having partnership chats,

which is only your time and you're

506

:

having them in a structured way.

507

:

Also we've talked, and I think

both of you have discussed that the

508

:

average client value goes up, so that

also addresses the profit squeeze.

509

:

There's also what Wayne just said,

which is expertise partnering with those

510

:

people who are topical, whether it's

marketing or hr, or in this case, it

511

:

that is going to allow faster innovation

without adding headcount to your company.

512

:

You don't have to hire them,

you don't have to pay for them.

513

:

You just be plug into

access to their resources.

514

:

What they gain out of that is clients.

515

:

What you gain out of that is an

immediate upgrade to what you offer.

516

:

And then there's also what we

said about protecting your profit

517

:

through strategic positioning.

518

:

The more you can do this, the

more you become a trusted advisor.

519

:

And the beauty of it is too, that it's

not an endless loop like marketing.

520

:

You just go out there.

521

:

You create the key ones that you

need right now in the next two

522

:

to three years, and you nurture

those and you look after them and

523

:

you get the results that you need.

524

:

And profit doesn't go down the toilet,

but rather it increases as does your

525

:

differentiation and your value to market.

526

:

Anthony Perl: Well, that's what we

have time for in this conversation.

527

:

There's plenty more coming up.

528

:

In the Connected accountant,

so you definitely wanna make

529

:

sure you never miss an episode.

530

:

A reminder also about some

of our exclusive round table

531

:

events for accountants.

532

:

Visit the show notes for

dates and registration details

533

:

or contact information.

534

:

For Taleah Wayne and Ian is there as well.

535

:

This is a Partner Alchemy podcast

for thought leaders, a joint venture

536

:

between PLE and my team at Podcast.

537

:

Done for you.com

538

:

au.

539

:

I'm Anthony Pearl reminding you to

like, share, comment, and subscribe

540

:

so you never miss an episode.

541

:

See you next time on the

Connected Accountant.

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