Ep. 30: Fatima Mamod - Business Savvy Accountant

Contact
Fatima: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fatima-mamod-ca-sa-cia-60837876/


FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT


Adam: (00:05)


Hey everyone. Welcome back for episode 30 of Count Me In. I'm
your host, Adam Larson and our featured expert guests for today's
conversation is Fatima Mamod. Fatima is a chartered accountant,
entrepreneur and a business coach from Johannesburg, South Africa
who joined Mitch for a conversation on what she calls the
business savvy accountant. Let's tune in now to learn more. 


 


Mitch: (00:31)


In your opinion, what skills are most necessary for an accountant
to be successful in today's business environment? 


 


Fatima: (00:38)


Okay, so I think the most important thing, I mean we are
accountants by profession is definitely the technical skills. I
think that goes without saying. But on top of that is to have a
very important elements I think. And the second one is business
acumen. And when I say business acumen, you know, I really mean
where you can tie in your technical skills with helping the
business achieve what that moods to. So it's not just knowing or
understanding how the business works, what's the dentist process?
It's actually tying in your technical skills with what the
business needs. And I'll use the data's process as an example. So
we all know you need to do a data's check in the beginning. You
need to ensure that they have a credit limit. You've done the
credit fitting, etc. Now as the accountant, you know that what
I've realized is simple things like this, sometimes within the
company, people don't understand the importance of it until
you're way down the line and you're not getting the money from
your datas. So what I find is communicate, talk and let your
sales people know why it's so important and how this impact and
fix them. And that's a difference between understanding the
business and business acumen which is really important. and then
the third thing that too, we are never taught as accountants I
would say, is communication skills. We understand numbers. We
never thought how to present those numbers through a story that
business leaders can actually understand. I mean, how many
meetings have we been in where the accountant is just asked to
then present the numbers as he or she is going through it. No
one's actively engaging. They either busy with something else
because we don't present our numbers in a way that tells a story
of the business. And I find it really useful and what has helped
me a lot and I get very great feedback, is when I present with
telling a story and I do that by talking to my colleagues
beforehand saying, hey, I see our sales that actually up this
month. That's great. What was the reason behind the, it's how did
it go? Was it customer A and tying that in. So when you're
presenting the people you've spoken to actually feel like they
part of your presentation, they feel like you're presenting a
part of this story. And that's really key. 


 


Mitch: (03:01)


Now, how do these different skills change or adapt when you're
looking to be an entrepreneur? 


 


Fatima: (03:08)


So what are the three realized and running three, four businesses
of my own and then successfully selling them off my technical
skills. As much as I thought they would either be center around
my entrepreneurship journey, they were not. And I think that's a
big common mistake that we make as accountants. We feel that
because you know, I'm a charted accountant, I know what I need to
do with the technical skills at the center know I find that your
business acumen, your business knowledge is the most important
thing when you start your entrepreneurship journey. They, you
know who you do business with, the client you get into, they
don't really care whether you're a charted accountant video to
qualify the content by proficient, they have a problem and they
need to understand that you as a person have the skillset to
solve that problem for them. And they may not even realize that
it's an accounting problem. So you need to be able to, again, the
business actually meant to show them that the skillset that you
have actually matches, and this goes with any business where they
use starting their retail businesses as well. Customers and
consumers will come in with a certain need and you have to be
able to identify and resolve it for them. The second thing that I
find is really important is on the leadership side, we learn
accounting, learn everything on that but none of us had really
thought leadership skills. So in that post communication,
networking, networking is, you know, a baby that everyone uses.
Attend networking sessions. Why don't you meet with this one? But
how do you it yet? What do you go and what do you want to get out
of attending things? Because time is key on skins, 50% of your
time attending different events and you don't get any leads from
me. So it's your leadership, your communication. When you attend
these sessions, who are you targeting? Who are you going to meet?
How are you going to start the conversation with them? Need to
think all these things through before you go in. And the last bit
is you need to identify within your mentors who's the right
people to help you unlock the path that you need forward. Because
an entrepreneurship journey can get very lonely and you cannot
really resolve everything on your own. So you need to understand
that it's certain points you will need help. And who are the
people you can turn to for help. I remember when I started my
practice the first three months I had not one client, not one
lead. And that was really because I sat and I said, you know, I'm
qualified to offer service. This is what I'm worth and I'm not
willing to talk, negotiate or even understand what's happening in
the market. And three months with not a client and then realize,
you know what, entrepreneurship doesn't work like this. 


 


Mitch: (06:03)


So you've used the word business acumen a few times now, but in
preparing for our call, I know you referenced business savvy
quite a few times, so I'm curious, what does an accountant who is
business savvy actually look like? 


 


Fatima: (06:17)


So I could find an accountant who is business savvy, what do they
look like? That's the person who has a seat at every table with
business decisions that are being made with strategies in
discuss. Your opinions are actually in us and you have people who
make these decisions within the organization come through and
saying, Hey, this is what we're thinking. we heard your
presentation or you really helped us on this exercise. What are
your thoughts around this? How do you think we should approach
this new contract that we are looking at signing with this
customer? Do you want to join him in the meeting? And then when
you join in, in the meeting, it's having a voice on the table
that's actually hurt. And that's when you realize that your
business acumen has translated to becoming business savvy. People
now know what you bring to the table and people can see you as
beyond just being the accountant in the business. 


 


Mitch: (07:16)


Many of our listeners are more corporate accountants. So I'm
curious, how does a business savvy accountant function in the
corporate world as opposed to the entrepreneurial
environment? 


 


Fatima: (07:29)


So the key difference in the key item that's different in the
two, and I've had seats on both sides. ...