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The Small Business Project Advisory is more than what you deliver. We help accounting firms implement the structure, conversations and capability.

We want our teams to ask different questions.To stay curious longer.To resist jumping straight to the answer.To follow a...
19/10/2026

We want our teams to ask different questions.

To stay curious longer.
To resist jumping straight to the answer.
To follow a strategic business improvement advisory process that can sometimes feel very different from the technical conversations they're used to having.

But there's a catch.

They need to see us doing it too.

If the partners continue doing things the way they've always done them while asking everyone else to adopt a new process, it quickly becomes something they have to do rather than how we do things here.

You can't ask someone else to do something you're not willing to do yourself.
So if we want our teams to work differently, perhaps the first question isn't what they need to change.

It's what they need to see from us.

Leadership means going first.

You might already be very good at having strategic conversations with clients.After 10, 15 or 20 years, you know what to...
15/10/2026

You might already be very good at having strategic conversations with clients.

After 10, 15 or 20 years, you know what to ask, when to probe further and when something doesn't quite add up.

That's expertise. And it's incredibly valuable.
But expertise alone isn't a scalable training model.

You can't hand 20 years of experience to a manager and say, “Do what I do.”

If we want more of the team delivering strategic business improvement advisory, we need to put some structure around what experienced advisers instinctively know.

Not to replace their expertise.
To give everyone else a way to start building their own.

That's one of the conversations we'll be continuing at LYD26 Vol.2.
👉 Find out more about LYD26 Vol.2 -https://unstoppablecon.com.au/

A client says:“Things are going okay, but I’m working ridiculous hours and I don’t know if I want to keep doing this.”Fo...
14/10/2026

A client says:
“Things are going okay, but I’m working ridiculous hours and I don’t know if I want to keep doing this.”

For an accountant who has spent years being trained to analyse a problem and provide an answer, this can be an uncomfortable place to sit.

There’s no obvious accounting question to answer. No report to interpret. No technical problem to solve.

So what do you say next?

The reality is, most of us were never taught how to have this kind of conversation. And asking more questions rather than moving towards an answer isn’t necessarily our natural communication style.

We’re accountants. We like information, clarity and answers.

Strategic conversations ask us to stay curious a little longer.

What’s creating the long hours? What would you like the business to look like instead? What matters most to you over the next 12 months? What’s getting in the way?

The good news is this is something we can learn. With a framework, practice and the opportunity to build confidence, more accountants can learn to think strategically and lead these conversations well.

If advisory is going to become a team sport, we need to give more of the team the opportunity to develop these skills.

Some accountants seem naturally good at strategic conversations.They know which question to ask next, when to keep explo...
12/10/2026

Some accountants seem naturally good at strategic conversations.

They know which question to ask next, when to keep exploring, when something doesn’t quite add up and when there is enough information to help the client move forward.

It can be easy to look at that and assume some people simply have it and others don’t.

But look at how many of our strongest strategic accountants developed that capability. Years of client conversations, exposure to different businesses, watching experienced people handle difficult situations, getting things wrong, learning what to listen for and gradually building judgement.

That’s development.

The opportunity now is to become much more deliberate about it.

We can give accountants frameworks to guide their thinking, opportunities to practise, exposure to client conversations and support while they build their judgement and confidence.

It still takes time and experience. But we don’t have to leave the entire development process to time and experience alone.

If firms want more of the team capable of delivering better advisory, we need to create the conditions for them to learn it.

Strategic accountants aren’t born. They’re developed.

11/10/2026

A little behind the scenes at The Small Business Project.

One of my favourite parts of working with accountants is introducing them to a different way of thinking about advisory and showing them the practical tools and processes that make it possible.

There's something pretty special about watching accountants realise that strategic thinking and advisory conversations are skills they can learn, practise and become confident in.

And even better, that these skills can be developed across the whole team.
That's what we're working towards. More accountants equipped to deliver better advisory and more small businesses getting the support they need to succeed.

AI can produce information faster than any of us ever could. It can analyse data, identify patterns, explain results and...
08/10/2026

AI can produce information faster than any of us ever could. It can analyse data, identify patterns, explain results and give a business owner a long list of things they could do next.

So as AI gets better at doing that, it raises an interesting question for accountants. Where does our value sit?

I think more and more of it will sit in what happens after the information is available. Because having more information doesn’t necessarily make it easier for a business owner to know what to do with it.

They still need to work out what matters most to them, what they’re trying to achieve, which problems actually need solving and what they’re prepared to change to get there. That requires conversation, judgement and an understanding of the person and business behind the numbers.

This is where the human opportunity in advisory becomes really interesting.
Accountants can help clients make sense of the information, explore their options, make decisions and create direction. But if that is where our future value increasingly sits, we need to develop more accountants who can think strategically and confidently lead those conversations.

AI will keep getting better at producing information. We need to keep getting better at what we do with it.

AI produces information. Humans create direction.

Small business clients are telling us they want more from their accountants.They want us to understand them beyond their...
07/10/2026

Small business clients are telling us they want more from their accountants.

They want us to understand them beyond their accounting and tax.
What are they trying to achieve? Why does it matter? What is happening in their world? And what do they actually want their business to give them?

Which makes sense when you think about strategic business improvement advisory.

If we're going to help a client make better decisions about their business, we need to understand the person making those decisions.

Strategic business improvement advice needs strategic business improvement information.

And quite a lot of that information isn't sitting in their accounting software.

This month's Advisory Edge explores what that means for advisers, teams and particularly firm leaders. Subscribe on our website: - https://thesmallbusinessproject.com.au/

👉 Read Leadership Means Going First Blog - https://thesmallbusinessproject.com.au/advisory/leadership-means-going-first/

A client raises an issue. You can see there’s an opportunity to help.And this is often where advisory starts to feel unc...
05/10/2026

A client raises an issue. You can see there’s an opportunity to help.

And this is often where advisory starts to feel uncomfortable, because suddenly it feels like you need to turn a good client conversation into a sales conversation.

But you probably don’t need to sell advisory yet.
You need to understand more.

Is there a real need? Does it matter enough to the client to do something about it? What are they actually trying to achieve? What information are you still missing?

This is why we created the Five Steps to Better Advisory: Qualify, Prove, Align, Deliver and Re-engage.

They give advisers a practical process to follow, so they know what they’re trying to achieve at each stage rather than feeling they need to jump from spotting an issue straight into selling a solution.

In fact, much of the work in the first three steps is about understanding the client before you ever get to delivery.

That changes the conversation. You’re not trying to convince the client to buy advisory. You’re working together to understand whether there is something worth solving and, if there is, what the right next step should be.

Structure doesn’t just make advisory easier to repeat across the firm. It can make it much more comfortable to lead.

Understand, don’t convince.

A client raises an issue in a meeting that clearly needs more than an accounting answer.What happens next in your firm?O...
01/10/2026

A client raises an issue in a meeting that clearly needs more than an accounting answer.

What happens next in your firm?

One adviser might ask a few more questions. Another might offer a solution on the spot. Someone else might make a note to come back to it later.

And your most experienced advisers probably know instinctively how to take the conversation somewhere useful.

That’s the challenge when advisory relies too heavily on experience and instinct. It becomes difficult to share across the firm because everyone is effectively finding their own way.

Better advisory needs more structure.

Not a rigid script that tells an adviser exactly what to say, but a clear process that helps them know what they’re trying to achieve, what information they need and what should happen next.

That makes advisory more deliberate and less dependent on who happens to be sitting across the table.

And importantly, it gives more of the team a way to learn it.

That’s how we start turning advisory into a team sport.

103 accountants told us clients don’t see the value.102 told us they don’t have the time.Almost neck and neck.There’s a ...
01/10/2026

103 accountants told us clients don’t see the value.
102 told us they don’t have the time.

Almost neck and neck.
There’s a lot happening in accounting to address the capacity problem. Technology, automation and better processes can create more time and more opportunities for client conversations.

But what about the other side?
What helps the client see the value?

At the same conference, business owners told us what they wanted from their accountants: understand me and my business, ask questions, go deeper than the numbers and understand what I’m trying to achieve.

That's an important piece of the advisory puzzle.

We’re partnering with Tax Fitness to explore this through one of the most natural advisory opportunities accounting firms already have: tax planning.

Tax Planning Is Advisory. But Are We Starting Too Late?
📅 Tuesday, 6 October 2026
🕛 12:00 PM AEDT

If your firm wants to turn more compliance conversations into paid advisory, join us.
Register here: https://my.demio.com/ref/pDHSGAVQyADdzEGZ

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4215

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