If you could go back in time, to when you first started your firm, what one piece of advice would you give to yourself?

Interesting one, right?

That’s a question we’ve been asking practice owners recently as part of an ebook we’re pulling together.

And here are the 3 most common responses so far:

1. Charge what you're worth (and do it confidently!)

In the early days of running your firm, you just want to bring in as many clients as possible. What this means though is that you end up undercharging them, and doing too much for free. The scope of work increases and you don’t have the confidence to address the issue.

The result of this as your firm grows? A group of legacy clients that are unprofitable, time consuming and energy draining.

The most popular piece of advice from practice owners we’ve spoken to so far is to charge what you’re worth, from the start, and do it with confidence.

Sure, you might hear a few no’s from people. But would you rather 2 clients at £2000 each or 4 clients at £1000 each?

2. Set up the right systems from the start

“If you’re too busy to build good systems, then you’ll always be too busy”

And the reality is that as you’re busy building your firm, you get busier and finding time to work on systems becomes increasingly difficult.

The 2nd most popular piece of advice from established practice owners was to focus implementing systems from the start.

These could be:

• Onboarding systems e.g. Practice Ignition
• Practice management and workflow systems e.g. Pixie
• Integration systems e.g. Zapier (which can link Practice Ignition and Pixie together!)

Investing the time in setting these up early on will save you hours of admin, headache and frustration down the line.

3. Join a community of like minded practice owners

Being a practice owner can be lonely at times…

With nobody to bounce ideas off, nobody to share your experiences with.

Which is why the 3rd most popular piece of advice given by practice owners was to join a community of like minded practice owners.

This is a place where you can find out how others do things, what technology they’re using or what advice they have for a particular issue. The chances are, there are other people in the exact same position as you, or they’ve been in your position and understand what to do.

These communities could be free e.g. Facebook groups or peer groups, or they could be paid for if coupled with some professional mentoring and coaching.

What advice would you give to yourself and others?

There you have it - the 3 most popular pieces of advice would be to:

1. Charge what you’re worth (and do it confidently)
2. Set up the right systems from the start
3. Join a community of like minded practice owners

Knowing what you now know, if you could go back in time what piece of advice would you give to yourself or others starting on this journey?

Food for thought...