Tuesday 24 December 2013

New Year's Resolutions

Do you know what?

I've never been that good at New Year's Resolutions.

Of course, that's actually not true.  I've been pretty good at making them (although less so over the passed few years) but pretty terrible at keeping them.

I guess that's why I've avoided them recently... I know I'm going to end in abject failure, descending into a litany of self pity and then loathing.  I mean, why should I put myself in that position?

But I read a blog about how to make the most of New Year's Resolutions the other day and it pointed out the reason so many of them fail... and it's actually quite simple.  Most resolutions require us to stop something: drinking (so much), eating, watching telly, swearing and so on.

The problem is, as human beings, we find the requirement to stop doing things very difficult.  Fortunately, the flip side of the coin is that we are very good at doing more.  The technical reason is that the behaviours already exist and it's easier to more of something you already do than to change that behaviour by stopping entirely.

So, this year I have been inspired to set myself some New Year's Resolutions based on the idea of doing more.  Hopefully I'll remember this blog one year from now and I'll be able to measure my success.

Here goes; here are my 10 resolutions:
  1. To go back to the USA - I haven't been for 2 years.  I think New York and Vegas are in order
  2. To go on 2 mini city breaks (never done one).  I'm thinking Prague would be good and maybe a German Christmas market
  3. To visit friends more (actually to visit friends, full stop.  We've been pretty bad at it this year).  To become good and proper friends once more
  4. To spend more time at home in the evenings, which means leaving work a bit earlier
  5. To laugh more - maybe even visit a comedy club
  6. To visit the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and watch a sporting event
  7. To try something new and scary.  Not sure what that is as I've done most scary physical things
  8. To take a course of study.  Maybe creative writing or history... well, I'm of that age now!
  9. To finish my next book... somehow
  10. To ride a tram in Edinburgh.  Okay, okay, I know that one is pretty unlikely but we can all hope and pray!
I fully recognise these may not be Earth shattering but I thought that from small acorns and all that.

So, we'll see how they go and report back in a year's time.

Before then, it just remains for me to say on behalf of Renee, Barney and me... thank you for a stonking, fabulous, tiring, exhilarating, rollercoaster of a year.

We can't wait for 2014 so we'll see you ont he other side when we'll do it all again.

Thanks a million.

Friday 6 December 2013

Shop Opening

Our new shop opens next week - on the 12th December to be precise.

It's been a fair old while coming but now we're on the brink of the next chapter in the business we decided to sit down and really evaluate where we are against our plans, goals, aims and targets.

We hadn't been through the process for a while and so we were braced for some surprises... but the chief surprise was that we are pretty much on track, or maybe even just a little bit ahead.

It was always our intention to build a business that looked at accountancy in a slightly different way because, let's face facts: it's quite difficult to differentiate one accountant from another by the quality of their accounts - or at least it should be.  After all, all accounts should be the same give or take interpretation and mistakes.

So the next thing a lot of accountants do is try to differentiate themselves on price... but this is the rocky road to ruin for everyone involved.

No, we decided that actually the accounts themselves should be a given and price, if not the cheapest, has to be in the right ball park.  Our differentiator is the experience we hope our customers have as a client of TaxAssist Accountants.

What do we mean by this?

Of course, we work very hard to make sure the accounts are spot on and in 99.9% of cases they are.  I hesitate to say 100% because that's impossible.  However, beyond the accounts being right, we make sure our customers understand what their accounts are telling them... we talk everyone through their accounts and highlight things that have changed from previous years and we talk about why this might be.

And then there's the experience between these annual events.  We are always looking for connections between our customers, recommending networking groups and marketing and putting people in touch with as much help and advice as we can (and they want).

Finally, we offer a pretty rounded service.  Of course we do accounts, bookkeeping, payroll and all that stuff.  We can also help with business plans, copy writing, investment and all the other things that a business person might need.

So, after three and half years in the office at 84 St John's Road, we're moving... 250 metres up the road to 113 St John's Road.  We thought about it long and hard and decided it was exactly the right thing to do.

Our launch event is Thursday 12th December and we'll be working in the new office from Monday 16th December.

Do come in to see us... the new office is a whole new ball game in that we have loads of space, desks to rent and meeting rooms to hire.  We'd love to see you and are looking forward to the next business chapter in Corstorphine.