How Can You Increase Your Advisory Revenue Multifold As An Accounting Firm?

Accounting operations are an inseparable part of any business. Recording and reporting transactions are at the heart of business processes and strategy making. However, there is also a limit to how much this particular segment can expand. While for businesses involved in general activities, this might be a no-brainer, but for those companies that are specifically focused on providing accounting services, or such services form a major part of their overall portfolio, this is a matter of concern. Because of the limits put up on the expansion and growth of accounting, by the virtue of their inherent nature or by legal regulations, such companies need to come up with ways to boost their revenue from this segment in ways other than preparing and maintaining books. One such way is through adding advisory services to your portfolio.

First and foremost, every business knows the basic needs of accounting and therefore are not only inclined to, but also very easily able to, find the business process outsourcing (BPO) companies to provide those services at the bare minimum price. This means that with accounting operations alone, you cannot increase revenue by simply increasing prices. You will only end up losing clients. At the same time, however, most businesses are prepared to pay for value added services such as interpreting those very accounting statements that you prepared. Any successful accounting firm’s model would then include delivering accounting, financial, taxation and compliance work with an added something in the form of advisory services. Now let’s see some specific ways in which advisory services can earn you higher amounts.

Advisory services aim to bring to light hidden information within financial statements. This means that every company would have a different trend depicting a different story, which also means that they will have different goals when they come for such advisory services. This expanse of advisory roles allows experts to charge higher fees, because of their higher qualifications, keener observance, and more experience towards accounting and financial segments. Therefore, by including a range of advisory goals you can improve your advisory services, and in turn make your accounting department more profitable.

All over the world, there is an emerging movement towards entrepreneurship instead of job seeking. However, many fresh graduates or budding business persons do not have the required, or even relevant, knowhow of how to pursue such a venture. An established business and an accounting firm nevertheless is in a unique position to offer valuable guidance and insights to start, grow and expand any new business. Accounting operations differ mostly in their scope and not so much in the little details when it comes to different business sizes. This means that a small business requires the same skill sets and attitudes to develop a company as a bigger business needs to maintain their level of growth and potential. Including startup mentoring in your services will then be a great way to not only earn more money but also impact your overall economy positively.

Keeping in line with the previous point, newer companies need financing and usually much more frequently than their larger counterparts. Similarly, they have a more urgent need to be able to predict future trends to give better direction to their business, instead of larger and older companies already familiar with the market and economic setup. This provides accounting firms with an additional opportunity to earn and also help others earn more. Accounting operations have a direct relation to how much money a business might need or make at any given time period. This means that they can tell with much more accuracy on how to best obtain a certain level of financing. You can start providing advice on future projections and guidance on financing needs, options, and expectations.

Even though startups and smaller companies can come together in large numbers as clients of advisory services from accounting companies, there is also a major opportunity with larger business. While a newer company might want to ask you how to get money, a larger business will require insights on which other company to acquire or which larger assets to get rid of for smoother and quicker growth. Accounting statements present a uniquely specific view of the sensitive and risky areas of any business as well as the segments with most potential. This is where you can build another chain of revenue generating services for you

There can also be advisory services for specialized projects as and when the need arises. For instance if tax policies are changed, there will be room for advisory services on taxation and budgeting. Or if there is an economic slump, businesses will be looking for value added options such as how to minimize losses or recover bad debts. The key here is to stay ahead of the curve and keep yourself prepared to capitalize on any opportunity that arises in advisory services.