Head for what makes you happy

What’s the point in having your own firm if you can’t do the things that you want to do with it?

Clearly, we all must work within legal and professional frameworks and there are ethical and moral boundaries to identify but many accountants are constrained, consciously or sub-consciously, by barriers that have nothing to do with rules and regulations.

Often, the walls that hold us back are the ones we imagine, the ones that we feel obliged to recognise because we are ‘an accountant’ or call our firm an ‘accountancy firm’. We feel a need to conform, a need to fit ourselves into boxes of a certain size, shape and colour. Even when we seek to be different, we can be guilty of limiting our differentiation to areas that are considered acceptable differences within our profession.  Don’t wear a tie. Say you’re proactive. Offer probate services.

Walls frustrate us. Trying to fit ourselves into shapes and sizes that we’re not comfortable in make us unhappy.

So, it’s your firm. Embrace the fact that you can do whatever you want with it.

If you want to create a coffee lounge for your clients to pop into, do it.

If you want to have local artists working in your reception, do it.

If you want to conduct your business via a double-decker bus touring your area, do it.

If you want to sell office supplies to your clients, do it.

If you want to have an open-air meeting place, do it.

If you want to conduct your client meetings as you fish together, do it.

If you have an idea, something that makes you happy and fits in with your dreams for your firm, then follow your route to happiness.

Do it.