Why do we go out of our way to run Layers like a business and not an accountancy firm?

Forgive the somewhat clickbaity title, but after a recent self-imposed LinkedIn hiatus, I wanted something catchy to come back with.

I know what you’re probably thinking…

Accountants understand finances, so surely they understand how to run businesses. In my experience, that isn’t always true.

Running our own business has genuinely opened our eyes to everything beyond the numbers, and it’s shaped how we think about what accounting should actually do for business owners.

So this might sound odd coming from an accountant, but here it is:

We don’t run Layers like a traditional accountancy firm. We run it like a business.

That difference shapes every decision we make, from how we hire, to how we grow, to how we support our clients.

Okay… but what does this actually mean for your business?

Here’s the slightly uncomfortable truth in my opinion, and I am a hypocrite, because when I get asked for quick easy wins I will always reference them, but…

We could talk about things like £300 of trivial benefits; vouchers paid for by the business, each tax year. And yes, that is useful. It’s easy to explain, easy to implement, and available straight away.

But in reality?

If we worked together and focused on the below, the impact on your life and business can far outweigh £300 a year…

• Improving your pricing, and improving your margins in the process
• Increasing your client base (or decreased it)
• Reducing unnecessary costs
• Helping understand what you truly wanted to get out of the business, and geared our actions towards that
• Tracking and measuring meaningful KPIs
• Figuring out how to have you spend more time on the business and not being in the business (or even vice versa!)

Those conversations are harder. They take time. They require context and trust.

But they’re also the most valuable work we do, it’s really hard to have that trust in place to share and be vulnerable from day one, it takes work from both sides to get there, it’s beyond the numbers for us where you find this.

I often hear from people “oh, I have a rubbish accountant” but actually we aren’t taught these skills, and also have you ever stopped to ask them for more support, when really you should be exploring a business coach or an finance director (we offer this fractionally to our clients).

Running An Accountancy Firm vs Running A Business

When you run an accountancy firm as a firm, the focus is: hours, fees, deadlines and internal convenience.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say deadlines are still important, you’ve got to get the basics right.

But when you run it as a business, the focus shifts to: client outcomes, speed and quality of answers, speaking their language, data that’s reliable in real time, and long-term value for both sides.

That’s how our clients think, so that’s how we’ve chosen to operate and we apply the same thinking we encourage our clients to use.

We constantly tell business owners:

• Don’t do things just because “that’s how it’s done”
• Build systems that support your life, not the other way around
• Use tech where it makes sense
• Measure what genuinely matters to you

It would be hypocritical not to apply that thinking to ourselves, so here’s what we’re doing instead…

Accounting is the foundation, not the product or service we sell.

Compliance keeps you safe, but going beyond the numbers is where growth happens. Maybe, I should work in marketing with slogans like that! (Definitely not!)

The future of accounting isn’t about better spreadsheets or faster tax returns; it’s about helping business owners make better decisions with less friction.

That means:

• Fewer surprises
• Fewer “sorry, that’s not included” moments
• More context
• More access
• More partnership and agency

In conclusion we run Layers like a business because it benefits you if we do!

Layers Recommends (well, Adam recommends) 👂 🎧

We are going rogue this month, I’ve got plenty for you!

🎙️ Podcast: The Missing Crypto Queen by the BBC and Jamie Barlett – crazy story that came out a few years ago, worth going back and listening to from the start.

📚 Book: What The Heck is EOS? You don’t have to follow it religiously or follow the exact names they do, but the principles behind EOS, should absolutely be followed in business!

📱 App: A little shoutout to a brilliant app in the accounting space but is not accounting specfic, Adfin, trying to change the payments game and disrupting the market that GoCardless and Stripe dominate, as the kids say, if you don’t know, get to know! Get paid faster!

If you’d like to learn more about what I and the team at Layers Accountancy do, click here.