National Audits Group has more than doubled its revenue with the help of a five-year strategic plan to guide it, says Steven Watson FCA, the group’s Managing Director.

With a client base that includes self-managed superannuation funds, local governments, not for-profits and large companies with revenues of more than $50 million requiring internal and external audits, the company has grown to 35 employees with two main offices in Wagga Wagga and Sydney.

The business was formed from the audit section of a larger regional firm. Watson, who was working there, saw the opportunity to strip out the operation, buy out the shareholders and create a separate business.

“We started out in 2017 with only a rough strategy, and it took us about a year to define our new business and pinpoint and execute that strategy,” says Watson.

A pivotal aspect of the strategy was offloading unprofitable clients so the firm could establish consistent quality controls.

“During our humble beginnings we took whatever clients we could get, but as we got bigger we found it was more cost effective to have less clients paying a higher fee, rather than more clients at a lower fee,” Watson says.

Another dimension of the strategy was to partner with accounting firms to provide auditing services. “There are clear lines of independence in terms of our role and their role, and with our expertise we manage the accounting firms’ risk as well as the clients’,” Watson says.

To focus the firm’s expertise and ensure employees specialise, the company handles not for-profit audits out of their Wagga Wagga office and the for-profit audits out of Sydney. This ensures clients get the best service possible.

Watson and his three directors meet annually offsite for three days with an external facilitator to re-assess their five-year plan.

“We sit in a room with a blank sheet of butcher’s paper and get all our ideas down. It goes beyond just an operational plan because we include goals, aspirations and vision,” he says.

Then, the directors meet every month to dive into “the nitty gritty”, addressing of the action plans and the operational matters that feed the strategy. Every quarter, the directors meet with the managers who report back on key results and whether they are achieving or not achieving their individual targets. This is further broken down into personal development plans for individual team members.

“My advice to people developing a strategy is: don’t underestimate the time involved and the benefits it creates,” Watson says.

“You need to invest the time and have the patience to reap the rewards. If you do a bad job of your strategy, your firm’s results will probably be ordinary.”