1. Don’t let clients fall into debt.
This is probably the most important lesson. As a rule, clients who fall into debt often never pay. You feel sorry for them, time passes, you pay your employees for the work done, and the company is left without income. Two unpaid invoices mean we suspend services or terminate the contract.
2. Better no employee than a bad employee.
The longer you let them work, the longer you’ll have to fix their mistakes afterwards.
3. Don’t undervalue yourself.
Accounting firms take on very high risks that are sometimes hard to assess at the start. For example, you keep the books for a business that isn’t registered for VAT, charge a small fee and miss the threshold. The client is, of course, unhappy; for the employees it’s a human error; but the company has to pay compensation plus late-payment interest. The client paid EUR 100 a month, while the VAT due is, say, EUR 3,000 – where is that money supposed to come from?
4. A manager has to manage.
Their job is to organise, solve problems and optimise processes – not to do the company’s hands-on work (in our case, being an accountant). Otherwise you won’t keep up: mistakes will creep in, along with guilt and burnout, and the quality of processes will inevitably decline.
5. You have to invest in technology and keep improving.
You can’t stand still – the world is evolving fast. If we work with outdated technology, we’ll end up on the sidelines.
Leadership isn’t about control – it’s about responsibility and the decisions that, over time, either build or destroy your business.⚖️
