How to leverage your firm’s office space

Every once in a while we like to pull ourselves out of the spreadsheets and take a break from all the data talk. So we’re bringing you some practical career advice instead. This is why you should consider hosting or co-hosting event as a finance or accounting professional - especially earlier in your career.

We talk a lot about career growth through networking in this newsletter edition, but to be able to reach that growth, you’ve got to have your house in order. That’s why this newsletter’s sponsor is Canopy!

One of the key drivers of success for modern accounting firms is mastering the management of their practices. Canopy commissioned research to learn how accounting leaders are currently managing their practices and growing their firms. Dig into the results and see how your firm stacks up.

So why event hosting?

We’re starting to see some level of return to office, either by choice or by mandated hybrid office model, but it doesn’t all have to be bad. It’s a great opportunity to be the one who kicks off a business event at your office, either by starting something new, or by bringing back something that got paused at the start of the pandemic. We’ve all heard of brand building from countless influencers, but not so much in the context of our professional careers, so lets get into why you should be doing it as an accounting or finance professional.

Enhanced Networking Opportunities: Hosting business events provides professionals with a unique platform to connect with other professionals in the accounting field. By bringing together like-minded individuals, you can expand your network and establish relationships with potential clients, colleagues, mentors, and peers. These connections can lead to valuable business opportunities, partnerships, and referrals, ultimately advancing your career.

Thought Leadership and Expertise: Hosting business events will help get your name out there in the community, and typically by hosting you get a few minutes to speak to kick off the event. This will help you become recognized as being a more reputable professional in your field and will allow you to gain access to people you would not otherwise be able to since being the event host gets you that bit of extra name recognition. By becoming recognized as an industry authority, or at the very least as someone who can enable connections in a given field, you can attract new clients and gain visibility within the business community.

Business Development: It’s never too early to start building up relationships that will eventually make up your book of business as you progress through your career. Not only is it infinitely more interesting working on client files where you have a relationship and interest in the business, but it is also a path to increasing your value to the firm by being the point of contact for these key relationships.

Where to start?

Personally, I got in touch with a local chapter of product-hunt and proposed that the firm I worked at could be an ongoing venue sponsor. This made it so the entrepreneurs presenting and attending got exposed to the firm, and it also got me a few minutes as a speaker at the event to introduce the venue. I’ve made great contacts from it that I continue to stay in touch with and have been helpful in my career and great models to follow.

Some other interesting meetup groups I’ve seen where you can host are:

• F**k up Nights - meetups focused on celebrating businesses and people who have taken big swings that didn’t quite pan out. You can learn more from your mistakes than your successes.

• Indie Hackers Meetups - Meetups aimed mostly at people running smaller bootstrapped businesses, probably a most appropriate fit for smaller firms.

If you’re interested in hosting any of these, you’re likely in a very good position to do so, as organizing the venue tends to be the hardest part, and most firms are willing to host in return for the benefit of being considered a venue sponsor of the meetup.

We’re trying something new!

The mission at Big 4 Transparency has always been to answer questions accounting professionals have, particularly regarding compensation. With more and more firms mandating a return to office, I’m looking to gather an answer to how highly we value the ability to work remotely. Please take 10 seconds to weigh in on the matter here, and see what others are responding!

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