Video transcript:
With technology, as it frees up our time in the tasks that we have done before — and you hear a lot about becoming an adviser or analyzing the financial statements and really trying to understand what those mean — that may not be something that you have done in the past or spend a lot of time in. And so many times because we haven't done it before, we avoid it rather than actually taking the time to learn what that skill is.
And so the technology will surface to you different ratios and maybe “what if” scenarios and things that can help you with analyzing the financials. But you’ve got to practice those communication skills, number one, to talk to your clients about what that’s surfacing, because even if the client had that software they are not going to know what to do with it. But secondly, I talk about that you need to understand the intangible in the business, not just the tangible. And what that means is, you need to get into the business — be talking to the operations people, understanding how the business functions, because then the financial statements come alive. So when those ratios pop, you actually have an understanding of the underlying business processes and can explain the story of why that’s happening. And it will help you to feel more confident in the answers that you are providing to your clients as well.
