Anthony Bell is the accountant known around the country for his high-profile client list, which includes actors, sporting stars and TV personalities. Estimated to be worth some $26 million just last year, Bell’s a smart business operator, and his firm, Bell Partners, has been named BRW’s Most Productive Accounting firm each year since 2003.
Thanks to Bell’s impressive client list, (and his business acumen, of course), Bell Partners hasn’t had to spend a dollar on marketing or PR and yet it’s a high-profile Australian business that now employs some 100 people and has three offices on the east coast.
Anthony Bell shares the secret to his business success and where he believes opportunities exist for small businesses.
Q. What’s the secret to ensuring continued success in your business?
Innovation. If you keep doing the same, you get the same, and somebody will come along and overtake you. We’re constantly evolving the firm, constantly looking to innovate and grow. No two years should ever be the same in your business plan. You need to keep the things which have really worked well in the past but keep trying to find new things.
Q. What do you say to the notion that you should work on your business, rather than in it?
Many people advise you to work on your business, not in it, but I’m still very much a working accountant, using the tools of my trade. I do probably think of myself as a businessman more than as an accountant though. From my point of view, the best business card you can have is your business. If we want to showcase as ourselves as great business advisors, we have to prove that we are a great business.
Q. How important do you think word of mouth referral is for a business?
I’ve never spent a cent on advertising or PR. We don’t even sponsor golf events or that kind of thing you often see with accounting firms. It [word of mouth referral] works well because it’s free and A-class clients tend to refer other A-class clients.
Q. How important a good company culture & offering your clients something different?
It’s of the utmost importance; we want to be different, from the appearance of our office to the way we do business. We work in much more of an advisory and consultative way rather than just doing someone’s accounts. We’ll look at a small-to-medium business client with $10,000 to spend and we’ll say to them that $5,000 is for preparing the tax return and statutory corrections, and the other $5,000 is looking forward and strategising, giving them advice on their business’ future.
Q. How vital do you think it is for small businesses to plan?
Look at it this way: you can have a 60-minute output where you just jump straight into it for 60 minutes and see where it takes you, or you can plan for the first 10 minutes and get a lot more out of the remaining 50.
It’s time for micro business again. Don’t think of yearly outcomes, think of weekly ones. You shouldn’t get to the end of a year and need to wait for your accountant to tell you whether you’ve done well or not. Have week-to-week management sessions with your staff. If you work this way, you can react quickly to change. And that’s what flexible SMEs should be good at.
Q. Would you say SMEs are well-placed to take advantage of post-GFC opportunities?
I don’t think there’ll be another opportunity like this for another 20-to-30 years. Buyers aren’t only looking for cost efficiencies but also relationships. The larger players they may have been used to before are just too big to be able to provide that. So the smaller businesses can not only go in and undercut them on price but really bash them in terms of the level of personal service they can provide.
Put it this way: the overall pie may be smaller but the pieces of it available are larger. My advice is to use this time to develop great relationships. It’s an exciting time.
