Insert rebrand here

Can you feel the anticipation in the air building? Everyone is talking about it. Well in our office they are. Drumroll please! I am delighted to announce we will be rebranding our bookkeeping practice from the beginning of December. We’ll still be providing the same great, trusted services to a group of much-loved clients and still have enthusiasm for their numbers. But we’ll have a new look and a new name. JOG has held us in good stead since 2014, but as we grow, we wanted a new handle that said more about what we do and who we are. So, from 1/12/21, we will be trading as Appy Books. We use apps to do your books. Simple.

The big rebranding decision has led me to all kinds of smaller decisions about new stuff; new logo, new website, new business cards. And the one I had the most fun with, was a professional photo shoot for new headshots. Being a bookkeeper is about as far as you can get from being a model so I was pretty nervous as to how it would go, but it was a blast. The guys at Brisbane Headshots and The Powder Room in New Farm made it completely painless. The only thing that could have made it better would have been drinking French bubbles to help celebrate all things new. But, as the shots were taken at 9.30 in the am, that may have been considered unnecessary.

Engaging with a bunch of new service providers got me thinking about how we choose businesses to work with. I am lucky because finance is a very collegiate industry. We have social media groups, industry webinars and, heavens forbid, even IRL networking functions where peers are happy to share their experiences and their contacts. If I need someone, I ask my peers. But sometimes, you just have to do your own research and make a leap. Maybe it’s my bookkeeper showing but my golden rule is if they are organised and answer promptly, they’ll probably easy to work with. I’ll choose them every time.

All these new relationships also made me think about the conversations we have with our potential new clients. What information do we need to gather and also pass on to prospects, to ensure we are a good fit? A bookkeeping/client relationship is actually quite personal. We learn a lot about our clients by looking at their data all day. If we don’t communicate well and don’t gel, it’s hard to make it work long term. 

Good business is all about taking every opportunity to adapt for improvement. Changing our business name has led me to rethink not only our brand but also our onboarding process. That’s got to be a good thing for future clients.