3 Common Roadblocks to Advisory

First and foremost, tax pros need to be in the right mindset before pursuing these changes to their firm and making advisory a service and a common practice. Some firms never get started because they can’t get their head around it – they want everything to be perfect from the beginning, from every process to every checklist. What holds them back is that they don’t want to get into a situation with the client where they don’t know an answer.

But nothing is perfect, and it’s all about getting started, if you wait for perfection you’ll be too far behind to catch up. There’s a myth that tax professionals are too stuck in their ways to change – but that’s not true. There comes a point in every tax pro’s journey where their mindset will shift and they’ll see how the market is changing and how they can adapt with it. Many of us have started to make these changes, but there are several that still need that epiphany moment where their mindset changes and they can finally see how the switch to advisory services can change their firm’s vision and future.

Find a New Comfort Level

Similarly to shifting your mindset, some tax pros aren’t comfortable yet when thinking about making a big change to their firm. Everyone has had to change and adapt in the last five years, and while firms are good at adapting, 90% of the time they adapt by reacting. We’ve had so much legislation in the last few years and so many new things coming at us within weeks – if you’re not comfortable with change, think about everything you’ve done over the last few years and how far you’ve come.

Change isn’t always proactive – most of the time, we wait and respond to a stimulus that forces us to react, but knowing you can adapt to change, should open up your comfort level with it. This is an opportunity to be proactive and define what the practice looks like to create something that is much more beautiful.

To add to your comfort level, look locally for help – find the conversations out there on advisory and look online for group discussions, webinars or blogs. There are so many services and support groups to help you get started and ease any nerves you have around making these changes.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Once the mindset and comfort level roadblocks are overcome, then there comes the moment where firms realize this isn’t a quick change. This is a multi-year journey that needs to be practiced. Sometimes firms aren’t willing to put in the work and practice, but this is what we do at the core of our profession. We practice accounting, we practice writeups, we practice tax returns – those didn’t come easy to us overnight, but when we put the work in and are passionate about the results, it eventually becomes second nature. It doesn’t have to be an overnight transformation. In fact, doing that would be ill-advised. Start small and test into advisory to really get this right. 

So while practice may be a roadblock holding you back from advisory, it is such an important part of the advisory journey. When firms are just first beginning on the road to advisory, they need to practice on a trusted, loyal client and then implement on other clients until the entire firm and client roster is implementing advisory. Start with clients with great relationships and move along from there.

Firms that lead with advisory today are the ones that launched and practiced along the way and made mistakes. Like we said before, no one is perfect and building confidence through practice is so important when you’re making a big change to how your firm operates.

Remember, this won’t happen overnight. It’s a multi-year journey and process, so take your time, but don’t let these common roadblocks get in the way of your firm’s success. 

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Jasen Stine is tax and accounting education leader at Intuit. Jim Buffington is advisory services leader for Intuit Accountants.