Mayflower Consulting Managing Director, Sarah Penn, was recently interviewed by AccountantsDaily for their podcast series. She discusses ‘horrified expressions’, dieting, pricing, marketing and more. You can listen via the Accountants Daily website download from iTunes or subscribe to the podcast in your favourite podcast app. 

Marketing is a funny thing. On the one hand, it looks so simple – anyone can write an article and send an email these days. And with all the great online tools, it should be easier than ever before to promote your business. Right? Wrong.

Don’t sell yourself short – make sure you’re charging your clients appropriately and channelling your value where it’s needed.

In the flurry of activity and discussion around accountants becoming licensed to give financial advice, many people seem to have forgotten that a license is just the first step. After that, you need systems and processes, and then, horror of horrors, you need to promote your new service. Because there is exactly zero point in getting a license to give financial advice if you don’t actually deliver that advice to anyone.

An SMSF practitioner running a business has to deal with a variety of issues with different people. What process can be used for determining the best strategy for these situations?

Communication is the key to guiding panicked SMSF clients through unpredictable political changes and economic events. There’s a lot going on right now. It’s end of financial year, there’s an election going on, the accountants' exemption finishes on 30 June, there’s a raft of changes on the way for super, and the markets are being entirely unhelpful.

Like you, we were expecting some tinkering with super in the Federal budget.  But we didn’t quite get what we expected! Whether it’s Labor or Liberal in power after July 2, I think it’s safe to say that the super party has just come to an abrupt halt. When RBLs were abolished in 2007, it seemed as through the super party was going to go on forever.