Edition 461 – Transitions

In one of the first client meetings back this year, after the Christmas break, we were talking about transitions in business, and in life.

In this situation, it’s a great family business, where we’ve nailed down a strategy that sees the business grow to a level, where it allows the family to live their best lives. Not too big.
Not too small. Interesting, niche work. Very nice financial return. The topic of transitions arose as the business, and the owners, are themselves going through a transition, as the business morphs from what it was, to what they want it to be.

As I’m standing up at the flipchart, and we’re’ engaging in the to-and-fro of conversation, it came across me that the best way to describe how transitions arise in family business, was to illustrate my own transition.

In 2005, I was a partner in a four partner accounting practice, that had two offices, 25 staff and six different income streams. The aim was to build the one stop financial shop, and our strategy was set around that.

In 2015, I was still a partner, but this time in a two partner practice, with a single office, 15 staff and four different income streams. The intervening 10 years had seen a number of partnership changes, and a refinement of our strategy to focus on some core elements of our business, with less staff. I no longer subscribed to the “bigger is better” strategy, and instead, it was about doing the work we liked, with the clients we wanted to work with.

In 2025, it’s another shift. Solo practitioner, with a home office, 2 staff, including my wife, and a practice that focuses for the most part on consulting, advisory and project based work. You’d say these days, there’s 1.5 income streams.

In 2005, nor indeed in 2015, would I have envisaged that 10 or 20 years down the track, my professsional and business life today, would be what it is. In actual fact, even 10 years ago, I’d countenanced the fact that I’d been 20 years in that firm, and would probably work there until I decided to pull up stumps and sail off into the sunset, whenever that day would arise.

If I was to look back over that 20 year journey, my lessons are:

1. Don’t lament any of it. Each stage arose for a reason, and there’s learning from all of it – the good, the bad and the ugly.
2. Look out for the pivotal moments, and how that impacts your journey. For me, there were big events that took place in 2005, 2008, 2011 and 2014 that each led to a reappraisal of the journey, and thus the strategy that we’d adopted.
3. Keep searching for what it is you truly love to do. For me, that’s been a morphing into the business advisor model, and only taking up new engagements that play in that space. Being an accountant has been, and continues to be, a very important foundation for my work. However, it’s not how I want to be defined, in the future.
4. Similarly, only work with people that align with your value system. I’ve moved clients on, or I’ve rejected client engagements, out of a difference in values. For me, one of those means that if you don’t like paying tax, then I’m not the advisor for you.

The irony of this is that the more “particular” you are, two things happen:

1. Your financial returns are better than they were previously.
2. Your quality of life is better than it was previously.

So, take a moment to reflect on the transitions that have taken place in your own journey. Have you grown through that period, and used that growth to build a better life? Or, have things stagnated, and you’re not achieving in life, and in business, what you set out to achieve?

This Week’s Tip

“Growth doesn’t always mean more – like growing revenue or profits. It also means, your growth as a person, a business owner and as a member of the community.”