Online Branding is Vital for the Modern Accountant

Whether we admit it to ourselves or not, we all make snap value judgements of other people and situations we find ourselves in. It is human nature and, as such, it influences our professional judgements as well as personal ones. So what judgements of others do we make when we get given a web address or an e-mail address?

I confess that when a business professional gives me a business card and it features a Hotmail or a Gmail address, I make certain judgements of my own, rightly or wrongly. Firstly, I assume that the person giving me the business card is a sole-trader or a small enterprise. Secondly, I assume that their own IT infrastructure is not particularly advanced or secure. This might very well be the case, but more fool the person who has given me the business card if not!

Accountancy is seen as being one of the professions, and all that it entails. For one thing, I would like to know that any information that I e-mail my accountant is both secure and backed-up, two things no-one can absolutely guarantee if they use a ‘free’ e-mail service. I would also like to know that my accountant is sufficiently advanced and technically sophisticated enough to have good IT systems that reflect current best business practice. If my accountant is not up to speed with IT best practice, what else are they lagging behind in?

You may think all of this as being superficial and, to a certain extent, it is. But whether or not these judgements are superficial or not, they are far from spurious. If a negative judgement has an impact on your professional image, it will have an effect on your future business growth.

To my mind, every business should own their own domain name (web address) on which the company’s e-mail addresses will extrapolated from. Not only does doing so immediately address the issues I have raised here, it also provides the basic infrastructure for your business and the provision for growth. For example, if you decide to grow your accountancy practice at any point, would you expect or even want your employees to use Gmail or another free provider’s service, over which you yourself will have no access or control over?

Diamond Discovery, the makers of Prelude Accounts, is now offering both webhosting and e-mail hosting services to accountants. We will help you get set-up and will provide cost-effective, personal support services, so you will have online branding and other online services that will put you on an equal footing with your more established competitor.  For more information call 01656 725800 or e-mail info@preludeaccounts.com.

Don’t forget: Prelude Accounts can also be found on Twitter via @PreludeAccounts / https://twitter.com/preludeaccounts.