For accounting firms, the task of delivering quality business development services to their clients is something that often takes a back seat to compliance, or is given on an ad-hoc, reactive basis.
Introducing: The Gap, a web based portal, founded and led by NZ Chartered Accountants Viv Brownrigg and Mark Jenkins, that enables accounting firms to efficiently deliver a wide range of Business Development (BD) services to their SME clients.
At Business Link Pacific we believe that helping your clients to run a better business is best business practice. As such we are proud to announce our new partnership with The Gap, a partnership that will benefit all of our BLP Partners.
We caught up with Natalie Eady, Product Development Manager for The Gap about what makes The Gap unique and how it can help accounting firms in the Pacific Islands.
In a nutshell, what is The Gap Portal and why is it important for small and medium sized accounting firms?
“Firstly, we are primarily a content provider. The content we provide is practical and proven, it’s been developed by accountants for accountants to deliver more value and develop stickier client relationships. The content modules are supported by an extensive education programme, invaluable mindset resources and much more. The portal enables auto branding of documents and resources allowing firms to activate the content quickly.
Accountants want to help their clients, but often give bits away for free, without important context. While this is with the best intentions, if we spin that around and offer SMEs services that consider their big picture goals and issues, we can help them find better solutions, and provide them with enduring value. Clients can see the value in this work, which often comes in the form of attaining time, mind or financial freedom.
The services we offer enable small and medium sized accounting firms to learn and retain soft skills for life. We also encourage firms to take a full team approach when working with a client on business development. One of The Gap’s core values is sustainability, we are huge advocates of recycling knowledge – dispersing knowledge throughout the team, and then the team passing on that knowledge to the clients.”
What is effective business development?
“Business Development (BD) is different from advisory, it’s less about the accountant giving the client the answers, and more about them facilitating the growth and personal development of the business owner. It’s helping SMEs to see the value in working on their business, not just in it, and having some independent support and accountability in order to make better decisions and get better outcomes.”
Why are your BD services called ‘bridges’ and what are 3 of the stand out ‘bridges’ you offer in your portal and why?
“We realised that the ‘gap’ between the compliance world and the business development world is quite vast – we wanted to ‘bridge’ that gap with our systemised business development content, in the form of monetisable services that provide recurring revenue for accounting firms.
We believe our 3 stand out bridges are business best practice: Business Planning, Cashflow Forecasting and Accountability Coaching. They are the most easily adopted BD services and the most commonly required for small and medium sized enterprises – support across these three areas helps clients gain perspective on how best to run their business and the ongoing planning process.”
What are the main barriers facing accounting firms in implementing BD services? And why should accounting firms provide business advice?
We know that time and confidence are the biggest barriers for accounting firms. Partners struggle to prioritise time and delegate other work to free up time to help their clients with Business Development. Also, many struggle with taking the plunge to work with their clients in this way; not truly recognising the knowledge and value they bring to the table.
The Gap’s work is based on experience, not theory. We’ve seen first hand the value and support accountants can deliver their clients through business development. We know that these services work to build more sustainable, scalable and, ultimately, saleable businesses.
Some accounting firms struggle initially to see how valuable BD services are to their clients. At The Gap we think that business development is highly relevant and valuable, on a global scale – whether you’re a small or medium sized business or a large corporation.
We’re excited about this new partnership with Business Link Pacific who have a strong network of business advisors in the Pacific Islands, all of who could really benefit from The Gap Portal.”
The Gap has designed an introductory webinar for BLP as part of this new partnership with more collaboration to come. If you’re a BLP partner and are interested in more information about our new partnership with The Gap and how it can benefit you, contact us via [email protected]
