Are you considering a career in accounting? Like many people, you
may think that accounting involves a little more than working through rows of
numbers to determine a “bottom line.”
The basic skills you need to be a SUCCESSFUL ACCOUNTANT include the
following:
- Math.
Yes, first and foremost, you must be good with numbers, including
addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, percentages and fractions. No
calculus or trigonometry is needed, thank goodness. But a good handle on
algebra is essential, as a lot of accounting involves problem solving.
- Details.
It helps for an accountant to have a touch of obsessive-compulsive
disorder. Accounting is a very “micro” world, and you need to learn to sweat
the small stuff. This is a field where even seemingly insignificant errors can
come back to blow up in your face – or your client’s.
- Memorization.
Many people have compared accounting to law. There are a lot of
concepts to master and formulas to memorize. Fortunately, once you’ve worked in
accounting for several years, these concepts become second nature.
- Research.
Very often, the answer to a problem may lie beyond what you have
already studied. In that case, you have to go look for it. Fortunately,
research today is not nearly as difficult and frustrating as it was in the
decades before the Internet. But you still need to know where to look and the
proper questions to ask.
- People.
Although the popular image of accountants holds that they are dry,
bland and humorless, having well-developed people skills is a must for success.
First, it’s important you develop trust and rapport with the clients you serve.
Second, people often become highly emotional when it comes to the subject of
money – particularly their money – and to make sure your clients do the right
things with it can often require a high degree of tact, nuance and diplomacy.
- Business Focus
Pricing, value pricing, questioning each task that you are doing
or not doing from the profit perspective, asking yourself whether the task you
yourself are doing requires your CPA (or any other higher) qualification or
someone else with lesser education and/or lesser experience can do it more
economically (again, effect on profit), adding new services by partnering and
so on.
- Writing and Speaking
Accounting is a precise science. When talking about your work, you
need to be equally precise, specific and to-the-point. Your speech should
be clear and informative with no room for ambiguities. Not all of your
communication is going to be face-to-face. Very often you will have to put
your thoughts, analyses and recommendations in writing. Therefore, it’s
essential to be able to write in a style that is clear, confident and
persuasive. As in law, much of your job involves making a case.
- Confidence
Are you a control freak? Some CPAs admit this pretty honestly. It
is an expression that tells me that they know themselves well. Some are great
with tax planning rather than managing the process details to get there. The
moment you accurately know yourself, you also know what you need to get done
from others. And that also means you need to understand others to get those
things done from others. No point asking someone to crunch Excel spreadsheets
when you know the person has more “people skills” than data discipline.
- Creative Thinker
I met a CPA who will
prepare a tax return for free, if the client works with him for tax planning
assignment! He says “I know when I prepare a tax return for a business what
that business can achieve. And I want to share that value with the business
owner.” If you take a look at your standard service deliverable, what can you
do to create more value from them, for the client?
- Delegator
Isn’t this the most
difficult thing to do for accountants, for a reason? Accountants carry a huge
burden of compliance and delegating to a less experienced person can mean a
huge, irreversible risk of compliance failure. But the key is to identify
“process” and “validation” separately. Delegate the process and review for
validation (against applicable rules). It could save you as much as 90 percent
of your personal time. Someone expressed this so clearly in “Have a Delegation
SYSTEM i.e. Delegation Saves Yourself Time Energy and Money.”
- Determination
Determination and
perseverance is one of the best strengths of accountants. It could be partly
due to legal deadlines that act like goals that one has no choice but to
achieve. But having worked with ambitious CPAs, I know that CPAs have gone
through almost practicing overcoming difficult obstacles.
- Independent
How often do you hear
yourself say, “Don’t give me reasons for why it can’t be done…”? Or are you
creating excuses for your increased success, e.g.: the economy, limited
software, a talent shortage, tough competition and so on? I’m inspired by the
woman CPA from Florida who told me, “Whatever it takes!”
- Knowledge Seeker.
No one more than CPAs
seeks knowledge as intensely. Yet, technical knowledge about accounting is not
sufficient anymore. Today, you need to know social media, marketing automation,
customer psychology, new-generation habits and beliefs, leadership and, of
course, technology.
- Promoter.
As an accountant, you are the best spokesperson for your
business. It is nice to have clients to be your spokespersons – you do get
referrals – but the fact that most firms
don’t grow beyond 20 employees could be a pointer that more accountants need to
get out there.
- Relationship Builder.
As an accountant must
have high social awareness and an ability to build relationships that are
beneficial for the firm’s survival and growth. People skills. Period.
Talking to prospects and clients may be one of the most dreaded activities for
too many accountants. Of course, that just creates immense opportunities for
the rest.
- Risk Taker.
Successful accountants
know that risks must be taken and managed, not avoided altogether. So many
accountants have already taken the biggest risk possible – to be in a business
– which means uncertainty. And there is no bigger risk than uncertainty. So
what is holding so many of them back?
