An Ill Wind That Blows Some Good


In one of those quasi comical moments that often occurs in office work a client was talking to a colleague last week about the recession and happened to say, "I expect things are getting tougher for you." "Not at all," my colleague replied, "accountants love recessions, we can't lose."


Of course he's not 100% correct. If the recession is long and deep then clients will go under and we will lose fees which in turn leads to a contraction in staff levels. If however it's relatively short, say a couple of years, we will start to see more work as businesses look forward with a little more interest than small businesses generally do when things are going well. The attitude tends to be, "if I'm making money I don't need an accountant to tell me so," but when there is a slow down then we get asked to help, to be more proactive rather than reactive.


We've already begun to help some clients, part of the accountants/auditors remit these days, almost a mantra among larger consultancy firms, is "know your client." There are clients who, no matter how hard you try, are reluctant to ask for help or take the offer of help, you are seen as a cost not an investment. One of my personal bugbears is that almost all employers take the right-wing, possibly Conservative view, that staff are a cost and not an asset. Almost without exception the first action a business takes when the going gets tough is to make people redundant, why? After your product/service list the most important component of any business is the quality of its staff and yet so often they are discarded. They are trained, looked after and then thrown out - better to sacrifice the salesman then the car that the wife of the MD drives.


In many small businesses, which is where my 'expertise' is, it's not uncommon for the owners to draw less during the hard times, despite what you might read elsewhere. I had a meeting with a client last Monday who have just had their most successful year ever, a combination of a radical approach by management in terms of the way they conducted their day to day business, the retirement of three employees without replacement and the decision of the three managers to increase their own personal input to fourteen hours every day has changed the whole complexion of the company - with one exception, the three directors who control the company are still drawing the same level of remuneration as they were doing ten years ago. They have now reached a point where the company is financially viable, they are individually and collectively knackered and they have their biggest ever tax bill. At the end of our meeting the MD didn't know whether to cry with happiness or delirium.

Which brings us back to our role in any recession and whether or not we should be seen to making a financial gain from it. I was offered a new car last Friday, asked if I had a wish list, to which I replied I didn't even have a pen and paper let alone a wish list - always good to let the boss think you don't have all the solutions all the time - but I'd think about it.

Well after three days deliberating the pros and cons in my mind I decided why not, I've convinced myself, in the words of Andie McDowell, that I'm worth it and now it's just a question of what model.