Step 7 of Building a Better Business

Anna Stubbs • August 2, 2023

Get someone independent to hold you to account

Have you ever set a New Year’s resolution and then reset the same one again the following year? It's widely recognised that approximately 80% of New Year's resolutions fail. How can we increase our chances of successfully achieving our goals? Accountability.



The most foolproof way of ensuring you complete the actions you’ve committed to is to give someone nagging rights to follow you up. This may be your personal trainer at the gym who makes sure you show up at 6am, or it could be your accountant who checks in on you every 90 days to make sure you’re on track to completing your actions and achieving your business goals.

A soft coach will encourage soft results.

If you think about the type of coach a successful sports team would benefit from, would it be a hard coach or a soft coach? It’s no different in business. We all need someone with the backbone to hold us firmly to account and follow through on consequences for failure to act (‘give me 100 burpees!’).

A soft coach, maybe a life partner or a friend, is likely to worry they’ll upset you if they nag about inaction. They’re likely to accept your excuses. Whereas a hard coach isn’t going to worry about hurting your feelings and they won’t accept excuses. That doesn’t mean they don’t have a heart. Great coaches have backbone and heart; they just care more about your results than your excuses.

If you really want to achieve your goals, seek accountability from a coach who’ll console you after you’ve done the burpees, one who discourages inaction, and enables you to achieve. We can help.

“A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, and has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you can be.” - Tom Landry

Review your business expenses – and save

By Anna Stubbs • April 28, 2026
Running a business costs money. There are always costs, overheads and supplier bills that mount up – and these expenses will gradually chip away at your cash position, making it more difficult to grow and make a profit. So, what can you do to reduce your spend levels? And what impact will this have on your overall margins, profits and ability to fund the next stage in your business journey?

5 benefits of working with a business adviser

By Anna Stubbs • April 28, 2026
You know that an accountant can look after the books and keep your numbers in good order. But have you ever thought about the additional services and advice that an accountant can bring to you as a fully fledged business adviser, coach and mentor? Let’s explore what other business-critical services your adviser could offer:

Understanding Your Balance Sheet

By Anna Stubbs • April 28, 2026
To understand the financial position of a business at a specific point of time, look at the balance sheet. The balance sheet may also be called the statement of financial position. Together with the Profit and Loss Statement, and possibly other reports such as the Statement of Cash-flow, these reports provide a complete understanding of the financial position and business performance. So what’s involved: The balance sheet has three sections: assets, liabilities and equity.