What we have learned in our first year of business!

VILLA IS ONE YEAR OLD! How time flies when you’re busy having fun and we’ve achieved more than we could have ever hoped for! Villa has grown to serve many small and medium sized local Northland businesses and it has been a pleasure to watch our clients businesses grow and evolve. We have grown alongside our clients and learnt some key things over the past year:

Customer service is everything – this one seems pretty simple, but it really is very important. Our clients are most important to us, and we have found that the key to great customer service is communication with customers. Easy, quick communication via email or phone is something that many accounting firms don’t offer, our clients love how accessible we are.

Surround yourself with a great team – your team are the most important assets in your business. Surround yourself with great staff, and make sure they are happy in their job. Also remember that a “team” doesn’t only include employees. We’ve learned that contractors and third parties are an extension of our team – everyone from suppliers and social media help to other business owners in our co-work space at The Orchard has an important role to play in the Villa team.

Collaboration is much more powerful than competition – there is plenty of work to go around for anyone who is motivated and driven to take it on! If you can use the strengths of a traditional “competitor” then you can take advantage of the work synergies that come from being a collaborator – this might be through knowledge sharing, networking or they might specialise in a different sector of the market than you and your services genuinely compliment each other.

There will always be a bigger fish going after the little fish – don’t ever let this discourage you from going into business for yourself. It’s 2018 and there are plenty of “small fish” out there making waves in their industries and taking a great deal of market share. Times are changing, being the “big guy” isn’t everything and in fact it can mean having a less agile and less customer focussed business. Agility and customer service are two ways a small business can DOMINATE!

We look forward to learning even more over the next year! Thank you to our clients for all of their support!