You may have noticed that AVN has a new logo and in fact, a new name – The Accountants’ Network. So what’s going on? Managing Director Shane Lukas explains why AVN is rebranding.
For the past 10 years the strap line for AVN was ‘Inspiring Accountants’. This had a double meaning for us.
First, as a business AVN inspires accountants to do more. To do more for their clients, to make a greater difference and impact on themselves, their family, their team, their clients and on their wider community too.
Second, we wanted the accountants that we work with to advertise themselves as being inspiring accountants. That is, accountants who inspire their clients to want better results and a better business, which in turn gives them a better life. And then of course, to help them achieve that.
However, as much as those things continue to be important, as a strap line it didn’t really convey the great things we did.
From the point of view of someone who doesn’t know us, it looked like AVN was an accounting firm. And while it could be argued that we’ve inspired an accountant… so what? It’s a fairly woolly term whereas in reality we’re so much more than that.
What AVN actually does
We’re a coaching business.
We work closely with accountants to hand-hold them every step of the way towards achieving what they want for their firm. And quite frequently, helping them to identify what that is in the first place. Perhaps they had great ideas for their firm when they started, but these have died or been forgotten because they seemed impossibly out of reach. We challenge the mindset of those accountants to believe in themselves and to have the confidence and the enthusiasm to achieve their dreams.
For many, these dreams can be summed up as…
“An accountancy business that is fulfilling, profitable, future-proofed and focused on advisory. A business that runs and grows independently, so the owner has more income, more quality, worry-free time outside of work and more un-interrupted holidays.”
And we’re also a training business.
We teach the skills and instil the confidence to have different client conversations around pricing; to demonstrate and communicate value; and to deliver advisory services. We help accountants to better position their firms in the marketplace so they attract the kinds of clients they’d really love to have. We teach them scalability mechanisms so that no matter how much they grow their accounting firm, they don’t work harder. In fact, we focus on the opposite. So they simultaneously work fewer hours, take more holidays and reduce stress, pressure and effort. They run their accounting firm as a true business, one that works for them, not the other way around.
AVN doesn’t just inspire accountants, we empower them to do more for their clients, achieve greater success for themselves and to make a greater difference.
So this is why I wanted to rebrand.
The Accountants’ Network: Empowering Firms, Advancing Business, Enriching Lives
This is what our brand stands for.
And here’s why each element matters:
The Accountants’ Network
AVN began life as the ‘Added Value Network’, a network for forward thinking accountants. Running an accounting firm can be a lonely place, even when you work alongside partners and your team. So we wanted to bring back that aspect. AVN is a community for accountants, a place where our members feel they belong. It emphasises that we’re a community of professionals working together, sharing knowledge and supporting each other.
Empowering Firms
This speaks directly to our primary work of strengthening accounting firms and helping them develop. It acknowledges that we’re first and foremost focused on helping accountants build better businesses.
Advancing Business
This reflects how our empowered accountants go on to improve their clients’ businesses. It’s about the ripple effect of our work through the accountants we support to become business advisors to their clients.
Enriching Lives
This final element captures our broader impact. From the improved work-life balance of accountants, to the success of their clients’ businesses, to charitable giving by both AVN and our members firms. It embodies our belief that better businesses create better lives for everyone involved.
Our manifesto for change
Going through this rebrand has also helped to clarify our own purpose and vision. As a result of this, we’ve published the AVN Manifesto. This articulates our expanded vision and charts our course for the future of accountancy.
As the profession faces unprecedented changes, I believe it’s more important than ever to show what we believe in – and also the accepted norms that we reject. It’s all in the AVN Manifesto for Change – download your copy here.