Read the following article from Business Review Weekly by Anthony Bell the owner of Bell Partners, an accountancy firm, and answer the questions that follow.

Innovation and trust
Right from the start of my career, I felt the incredible urge to do something that was different to that I had witnessed and personally experienced in the accounting profession.

I started my career in the early ’90s and it was evident accounting was perceived to be a profession that spent most of its time and energy recording history, not making history.

Accountants and my university training were orientated towards the preparation of balance sheets and profit and loss statements or auditing historical financial reports.

While there was still a strong place for this (and there always will be) the opportunity for the future seemed to be creating an accounting firm that could apply its knowledge to business growth advisory, asset protection and profit improvement to name but a few.

It was this that I thought would be the next innovation in the accounting profession. Accountants were not really in the space of wealth creation and wealth advisory, they were leaving that service to other less qualified professionals, which also did not make much sense.

The new wave of accounting firm I wanted to be a part of was able to be entrepreneurial in its advice to its clients and provide cutting edge investment and wealth creation strategies.

Knowledge was always going to be the key to delve into this new era of accounting; however, I was aware that while our training at university and at the chartered accountants level was valuable, knowledge had to be found elsewhere.

And that source was my clients.

On the basis that success leaves clues, what better place to learn how to grow businesses, which structures worked and which structures didn’t and brand and asset protection mechanisms than from my clients.

I became a sponge while working for my clients, learning the disciplines and traits that could assist my knowledge base — learning from the successes and mistakes that had been made real time.

I was blessed to represent at a young age some of the country’s best known businesses and entrepreneurs and they became the source of our knowledge to apply for years to come.

The thing that I was hungry for was new work. At the start we had no budget for marketing or advertising to access new work.
Yet, the great clients I already had would also provide us with access to potentially new great clients.

So the commitment to my current clients was to do more than I got paid for, deliver better than expected results and provide a level of service that differentiated us from our competitors in the industry.

If I could get these three things right, the new clients that I would be hungry to act for would come by direct referral from the great people I already acted for.

All these years later, our growth is still achieved in the same way. After all, the only way to find out if your work is truly valued is by whether your clients are prepared, without prompting, to refer you on to their own business contacts as a trusted adviser.

Anyone can buy a client, there are always lots of firms for sale but I was of the view that if you had to do that, you weren’t measuring or achieving growth the way you’re meant to, which is organically.

The things I studied hard were the laws of attraction that would lead to growth. I also knew that reputation was so important because if you live by what your client’s think of you and who they tell, then you can also die by the exact same mechanism.
It was the late-’90s and fear and trepidation had to be cast aside and replaced with vision and determination. It is clear that back then we had nothing to lose and in some ways I wish that we all were able to continue with that ‘nothing to lose’ mentality.

Of course, if the business does achieve survival and success, is it only natural that its leaders have to contemplate the risk surrounding its progression. One thing I do know is that if I continue to attack the industry and do our work as hard and in the same way as I have since the late ’90s, our business can be three times its current size in the future.

Required

Discuss the areas of advice that Bell Partners offers to service its clients.