I know you and your agency might already work with an accountancy firm, and you could be thinking that moving to MAP might be a good idea for your agency because we specifically look after digital creative agencies. However, moving accounting firms can be complex and time consuming – and probably isn’t at the top of your everlong to-do list.
So, since you’ve been getting to know us a little better recently, let’s assume you’re interested in finding out why MAP might be a good choice for your agency. Let’s have a discussion about how your agency will benefit from working with MAP, compared to what you currently have in place.
Here at MAP we are working with over 130 digital creative agencies across the UK to help them to have freedom and peace of mind by helping them to build a more profitable, predictable and impactful business.
Let’s get into it.
Related content:
- See what our clients are saying about us here
“I really like my accountant, but…”
What frustrates you the most about your current accounting firm?
Through our experience we have discovered that there are a few major reasons why agencies like yours decide to move their accounting to MAP.
Here are a few of them:
- You might feel loyal to your current accountant. They are there when you need them and you can trust their work and advice, but they’ll have lots of clients to handle and they probably haven’t got the time or the industry experience to truly move the needle for your business.
- Internally, you might have finance staff collecting receipts, reconciling the books and producing reports but that’s not enough to give you the deep insights into what you really need to do to grow your business in the right way.
- Or, you might even have an experienced finance director who is genuinely capable of giving those insights but they still need a strong operating finance function beneath them to collate the data, produce reports and hit deadlines so that your FD has the information from which to give the best informed advice.
In other words, the core function of accounting is getting done, but your accountant isn’t truly helping you to build and grow a more successful and profitable business.
How will your creative agency benefit from working with MAP?
#1 We ONLY work with digital creative agencies
We ONLY work with creative agencies. Every day our team here at MAP are completely focussed on one very specific industry, which means that we understand your business model inside out, the challenges you face, the opportunities you have and how to make the most of them.
- We can help you to build the right financial plan to reach the personal goals that you are striving for.
- We can give you unique insights into your business performance and guidance on what the key drivers are to improve them.
- We can give you the confidence that you are learning from what the best agencies are doing to move things forward – and what mistakes we see agencies making so you don’t have to go through the same pain.
From the day we opened our doors here at MAP, we chose to focus specifically on serving digital creative agencies. What we love about successful creative agencies is that they are entrepreneurial business owners who are very good at what they do and receptive to receiving insights and guidance on how they can financially improve their agency.
They’re technology savvy and see the benefits it brings when it comes to allowing financial processes to be streamlined so more time can be spent face to face building meaningful relationships, and to top it off they’re interesting people to work with who share similar values to us.
We simply wouldn’t do it any other way.
#2 We provide a full finance function
A large corporate organisation has Bookkeepers who make sure the data is correct, a Financial Controller who deals with compliance and preparing reports, and a Finance Director who deals with the longer term strategy, minimises risks and ultimately helps you to build a more robust, predictable and profitable business.
However, the cost of employing that team costs upwards of £150k per year, so we offer the benefit of having those roles in your creative agency at a fraction of the cost. To give you a feel for the costs involved, our highest paying clients pay around £36k per year.
What this means for you is that:
- We can control your finance function without the disjointed nature of having people from three different businesses doing your bookkeeping, your compliance and acting as your outsourced FD.
- The data is prepared accurately and timely from day one, which leverages the impact the FC and FD can have from having prompt information they can rely on resulting to you having an awareness of how everything is fitting together.
- You have a choice and it’s not an all or nothing approach. If you have one or two of the roles in house – a financial controller for example – it means they can wrap around them, elevate them in their role and bring best practices from across the industry to help them become the best they can be.
#3 We’re more than just an accountant
As well as benefiting from the MAP team, you will also get tremendous value from the MAP community we’ve built for you to join, both on and offline.
In each sphere we bring together leading agency owners so you can be inspired and get support from your peers.
Some of these will be ahead of you and will help take you to the next level. Others will be behind you who you’ll be able to help up.
Our clients find that the learnings they take and the contacts they make from attending our events become unexpected advantages from becoming a MAP client. You will be invited to our web events, be given access to our online community and be welcomed to our exclusive invite only dinners.
The MAP community is important to us because we believe that together we’re stronger and we’d love you to be a part of it, so it can be stronger still.
Related content:
- Join our MAP community here
#4 We start with YOU
Over time we’ve found that many business owners lose clarity on why they’re doing what they’re doing. It’s easily done – clients, projects, your team and day to day firefighting often shouts louder than really focussing on yourself and why you started your agency in the first place.
We don’t want to forget that the number one reason any of us are in business is to create the personal life that we want, both financially and in terms of the time we spend in and out of the business.
It’s our role to make it all about you. To help you distill exactly what your personal goals are and only then build the business plan around that. We’ll discuss everything from home life, family, hobbies, holidays and what your ambitions are. The regular management reporting, strategic KPIs being tracked and meetings held are then in place solely to report on the businesses progress towards giving you those things.
It’s a far cry from the traditional accountant model of providing a service purely to keep HMRC and Companies House happy.
What’s the next step?
Starting any new journey can feel like a big decision. It can feel like it’s going to be disruptive and potentially take you off course.
The mistake that people often make is thinking that making a breakthrough is instantaneous. However, as you know, preparing to make a breakthrough and finding the right path takes time
Over the years we grow attached to certain ways of doing things, but as a wise man once said, if all you do is all you’ve ever done, then all you’ll get is all you’ve ever gotten.
We make working with us simple and provide a seamless transition via our onboarding process to help you make that breakthrough in your agency you’ve been looking for.
All that being said, we’ll have you and your team safely strapped in and you will quickly see that the transition over to us will be worth the effort as you’ll have greater visibility, greater certainty and greater enthusiasm for the road ahead.
If you’ve read this far, I can only assume that you are at least interested in exploring what working with MAP might look like for you and your creative agency.
The next step is to book a discovery call with one of here at MAP so we can find out a little more about your business, what the future looks like for you, and how we can work together to help you get there. Don’t worry, we’re not going to sell anything to you, it’s important that we first of all figure out if we’re going to be the right fit for each other.
Book your discovery call today and I look forward to speaking with you soon.
David.
