‍With the world still knee-deep in the global pandemic and recession, it’s hard to see any silver lining to the sobering experience we’ve endured this year. However, if I was to search for an opportunity for positive outcomes it would be this:

In such a profound and unsettling time in our lives—an era that is requiring nations, governments, industries and individuals to challenge and re-evaluate almost everything—what better time to look at our businesses and do the same?

Let’s lock in learnings from this present shock wave and reconsider:

• Our Why
• Our business model; and
• The trajectory we’re on.
  

I’ve likened the process to dropping our existing preconceptions on the ground, picking up the pieces and rearranging them for the new normal. Having the discussion, debate, and analysis around this can be very powerful.

Our Why?

At Spotlight Reporting, our ‘why’ has always been based on our passion for empowering the accounting industry to transform outcomes for small and medium-sized business clients. We haven’t changed this guiding principle, but we certainly have looked closely at how we can better serve accountants, bookkeepers, and CFOs at a time when it is ‘survival of the fittest’. That’s why we’re doubling down on investment in Spotlight Forecasting, to ensure that the cash flow of the future is clearly understood, projected, and discussed by accountants and clients. Scenarios can be crafted and debated, whilst loans, grants, and relief payments can also be factored in.

We’re also actively involved in a number of charitable endeavours at Spotlight Reporting, so it’s close to our heart to ensure that Not for Profits are given the financial insight for effective governance at this time. This is why we’re offering small charitable entities massive subscription discounts and free group training until further notice.

Our Business Model

Over the last 10 years, we’ve been to hundreds of events, travelled over 1,000,000 miles and made dozens of visits to regional centres to share our passion, our software, and our people.  We wouldn’t change this legacy of active involvement and commitment in our core markets, but the enforced lock-down and travel obstacles have certainly had us rethinking our model of engagement.

For us, we feel we can connect just as well and in some cases better with:

• Live webinars with industry peers
• Expanded online training (live and recorded)
• Targeted content, case studies and more; and
• Bite-sized podcasts that allow us to share some Spotlight magic quickly and easily
  

That doesn’t mean you won’t see Spotlight Reporting at future events, but it does mean we’re committed to reducing our planetary footprint by 50%, whilst allowing customers, prospects, and partners to benefit from our experience, expertise and support in new ways.  

Trajectory

Having helmed a company that has grown each year for 10 years and now partners with 2,000+ firms, we’ve always enjoyed a growth trajectory and entering new markets. The learnings of 2020 have us reflecting more on a trajectory that:

• Grows our skillsets and careers, more than just head-count
• Allows us to double-down on core markets and be more present for customers
• Prioritises ‘design thinking’ for the customer journey and experience over break-neck pace; and
• Ensures that we, our partners and customers are ‘OK’ and that we’re there to help as part of their ‘support and thrive’ network.
  

We hope that you embrace the challenge of the times we live in and rebuild towards the future state you most want to achieve!

Getting Started

1. Carve out some decent ‘blue sky’ time for you and the team.
2. Start with a blank whiteboard, hand out the markers and start asking:

• Why do we do what we do? What gets us out of bed in the morning?
• What’s changing, or could change? What have we learnt?
• If we capture the changes and the learnings, how does our business model evolve? (Discuss, debate, design and draw)
• With this new model, what are our fresh objectives and how do we achieve these? What projects, actions and activities do we need to progress?

    3. Note it all down, assign priorities, deadlines and owners. Lock in accountability!