Global Business Opportunities for Accountants with Simon Smallwood (Uncut)

On today's deep dive bonus UNCUT episode, Rob Brown of the Accountants Influencers Podcast interviews Simon Smallwood of WorldFirst on how accountants help their clients with international growth. Simon Smallwood is Head of Partnerships for WorldFirst UK, working with accountants to assist their clients on international business. Previously he worked for a VC backed fintech start up in the AI and Open banking space so knows the regulated financial services market. Simon is also an entrepreneur, co-founding with his wife a financial services business delivering the dream for UK buyers of second homes in France, Spain and other European markets. That business has been a client on WorldFirst since 2008 and had referred in 1,000+ private clients. Key takeaways from the whole interview include: ➜ A brief overview of the global business that is WorldFirst and how it helps businesses save money ➜ What is involved in making it easier for businesses to trade internationally ➜ How international trade has grown massively over the last couple of years ➜ The biggest challenges facing companies who do business internationally ➜ The importance of the accountant as trusted advisor to business clients who want to grow ➜ The thinking behind partnering directly with accountants to add value to their business clients ➜ How WorldFirst helps accountants to provide additional advice and support to business clients ➜ Questions an accountant might ask clients to uncover or expand international trade opportunities ➜ How technology has changed and helped the way businesses trade internationally ➜ Signs that a business might benefit from exploring opportunities to expand beyond domestic markets ➜ The common mistakes companies make when considering international markets for their products and services ➜ What a conversation with potential new accounting partnerships looks like for WorldFirst ➜ Advice for accountants who want to push a stronger international business agenda in their firm ➜ What's most exciting about global trading and international business in the next few years. When not working, Simon's entrepreneurial exploits include gardening, breeding ducklings and working the pub/restaurant trade. He loves playing sport, being outdoors reading books about high performance in sport and the cross over in terms of high performance in business. WorldFirst website: https://www.worldfirst.com Simon Smallwood on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-smallwood NOTE TO LISTENERS: This is a full-length interview (usually 20-30 mins long) from which the highlights show earlier in the week was taken. You can listen to this on a previous episode. Martin and Rob love to hear from the show's 6000+ listeners in 140 countries around the world. If you like the show, leave a review wherever you listen, and please recommend the show to your friends and colleagues.