I’m excited to share that I’m merging my strategic consultancy with the Australian accounting and advisory company businessDEPOT, and taking on the role as Director of Advisory.

A business advisor is only as strong as the team they have around them – I’ve long held that a strong team is one of the essential characteristics of great business coaches. Since leaving Shirlaws at the beginning of 2016, I knew it wasn’t in the best interests of my clients to have me isolated – away from professional development and a network of other business people who may be able to help them.

It would also make me a less valuable business person to know in general – directly impacting my relationship with you. If it’s true that “Your network determines your net worth”, I’d hate for you to be less valuable just because I was enjoying my small lifestyle business.

What I did not expect was that the solution to this problem would be a business merger or ‘becoming a partner in an accounting firm! It’s a great example of what you can create when you focus on why you are in business, and lose attachment to the form of how it’s supposed to look. I know my existing and future clients will all benefit from the fresh energy and genuinely collaborative approach that businessDEPOT exemplifies.

As the new Director of Advisory at businessDEPOT, my priorities are three-fold:

1. Continue to work with active growth businesses on designing and implementing their growth plans. In particular, we’ve developed two strategic workshops that I think will help a lot of you this November, December, and January;
2. Upskill my 30+ new colleagues, to add better strategic guidance to existing and new businessDEPOT clients – advisory clients don’t need to be accounting clients, and vice-versa, but all clients will benefit from combining skills; and
3. Find more and easier ways to connect business owners with the 75+ members of the businessDEPOT Collective – a curated collection of awesome experts that make businessDEPOT a real marketplace for business owners who want to grow.

It’s an exciting development for me, and one I believe will benefit everyone I work with. If you want to learn more, please reach out and suggest we grab a coffee soon. You can also come along to our free DepotX event on December 7 where I will be one of the expert speakers.

Here’s to empowering even more bright ideas in the future,

Jacob Aldridge
Director of Advisory