Why Follow When You Can Lead?

Do you often find the traditional way of doing business feels stifling? Blindly accepting things as they’ve always been has never been your style. Because of that, you tend to lead rather than follow.

Your colleagues simply settle for the status quo. However, your curiosity has you questioning everything.

Through research and discovery, you implemented some highly innovative breakthrough solutions for your accounting firm. They’re unconventional, breaking away from the traditional “rules.” But, you’re used to leadership and conforming simply isn’t your style.

With your accounting firm, you get to make the rules. So, you block out time in your schedule for innovative thinking. Finding creative, unconventional solutions is the fun part.

Disruptive Impact

You seek growth which extends beyond the traditional 10 or 20 percent each year. Basically, small thinking attracts mediocre ideas and mediocre opportunities. Your creative side thrives on BIG ideas. Disruptive businesses inspire you, causing you to wonder how to achieve similar results. If they can do it, then you can do it too.

For instance, Netflix disrupted the entertainment industry by killing video rentals and significantly cutting the demand of traditional cable TV. The company operates on a simple premise — people watch what they want when they want instead of conforming to a TV schedule.

Companies, like Netflix, do things differently. How does this wisdom apply to your business?

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Uplevel Your Network

Internet marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk claims that colleges and books can’t make you successful.

His key to success includes networking up. That’s where you develop a network of people go-getters and action-takers. Follow his lead to carve out your own path and embark on your growth journey.

Who do you want to connect with that knows more than you and is doing bigger things than you? Create your list. Then figure out what you can do for each person on your list.

Innovation Loves Variety

Diversity extends beyond gender and ethnicity. Mix up your network with people who run in different circles. That’s because thought diversity challenges the status quo.

Get creative. Take different ideas from other places and connect them. This stimulates innovation.

As Steve Jobs said,

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.”

 

 

Odd Couple Connections

Reach out to a variety of businesses which serve your clients. For example, commercial pest control and accountants. They’re different professions, but clientele overlap. A client that owns an accounting firm recently told me how he connected with a commercial pest control business to discuss referrals. Since they share similar clients, basically local business owners, they now cross refer. Business is about relationships. Sometimes the odd relationships yield the most profitable referrals.

Peter H. Diamandis is the founder of a progressive company known as Singularity University, a Silicon Valley institution that counsels the world’s leaders on exponentially growing technologies. According to him, you should create “unholy alliances”. Develop partnerships with companies working in fields different than yours. Many familiar big tech companies have achieved business success from such odd partnerships — Apple and Music, Microsoft and Gaming and Facebook and Oculus.

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Audit Your Business Model

Elon Musk is a pioneer in disruptive thinking. His ventures implement ideas which others solely dream about. He plans to offer affordable space travel. Plus, he put an end to traffic jams by creating tunnels through his Boring Company and ultrafast transportation via Hyperloop. According to him, you must consistently question all assumptions about your business model.

Regularly audit your business to discover which assumptions slow your business. These are the bottlenecks. How can you reinvent your accounting firm? Maybe new technology reduces costs or you change your pricing strategy. Challenging your own assumptions becomes easier with practice. Once you clear the bottlenecks, you will wonder why you didn’t do those things sooner.

Moonshot Thinking

Instead of working toward meager growth, aim for exponential expansion. Forget 10% increments every year and focus on 10X growth. Incremental thinking emphasizes ways to make your current capabilities better. Whereas, moonshot thinking leads to breakthrough insights.

The Moonshot Thinking Formula:

1. Identify. What big problem are you ready to tackle?
2. Search. Seek a radical solution for that specific problem.
3. Discover. Find the breakthrough technology to make your solution possible.
4. Challenge. Sometimes the technology is being applied for a different purpose than the one you’re looking to solve.

Firm of the Future accountants take risks and leverage the path of most resistance. Astro Teller, the head of Google X, believes that 10X goals are easier than 10% increments because they invoke people’s passion rather than tactically aiming for small increments.

Bold Action

When you go for 10X growth, expect some resistance. Your friends may not believe in you. Elon Musk’s close friend showed him a dozen videos of rockets blowing up because his friend believed SpaceX would never succeed. But, Musk persevered anyway.

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As you shoot for the moon, embrace the risks. Then turn obstacles into opportunities. Don’t allow other people to stop you from pursuing your vision. When failures occur, turn them into lessons instead of disappointments.

Adopting moonshot thinking is easier said than done. Gain clarity about your vision. Follow these recommendations for your accounting firm to grow without burning out. Discover how to uplevel your firm and attract clients who respect and value you. Right NOW claim your FREE RESOURCE to earn more while lightening your workload.