You’re out of free articles for this month
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Speaking to AccountantsDaily, Ms Carnell stressed that one of her most significant challenges in acting as the Small Business Ombudsman is encouraging the majority of small business owners to seek advice from the very beginning of their journey.
“We know from the statistics that this isn’t the case, and we [want to] convince small businesses that, for a pretty small amount of money, having an accountant on board for support and advice from the beginning is worth its weight in gold.
“The accountant is the core person in that space. I look at accountants as absolutely fundamental and I think that the statistics air that out.”
Ms Carnell added that for the majority of failed small businesses the problems are all too similar, and urged small business owners to make use of a valuable resource in the form of their accountant.
“We know that the reasons the majority of small businesses go broke are things like not having the skillset to manage cash flow and the basic management requirements. It’s not scary if you know what you’re doing, and your accountant can help with that.”
According to Ms Carnell, accountants and small businesses are presented with a unique opportunity to grow together throughout a business journey, and to nurture one another.
“In this new role I’ll be saying: ‘Talk to your accountant’. There are lots of accountants out there that focus on small businesses and start-ups; they’re small businesses themselves in many cases, so there’s a level of camaraderie there.”
You are not authorised to post comments.
Comments will undergo moderation before they get published.