Michael Youssef Turned Tragedy into 7X'ing His Business; The Man Who Cares about Making Small Businesses Thrive
*In 2016, **Michael Youssef's** father lost a ten-year battle with cancer. While the family grieved their loss, they also had to make a crucial family decision - to keep his accounting business going or ignore his dream of passing it on to one of his children.*
*SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA / ACCESSWIRE / April 3, 2024 / *HY Accounting was begun by Michael's father, Harry 20 years ago. His wife, Randa, Michael's mother, joined the business shortly after. The business was growing. It was doing good work. Then, ten years later, tragedy struck. That was when Michael's father became ill with cancer. He fought it for about ten years until he passed away in 2016.
Michael gave the decision of the business' future to his mother. "To be honest, the business probably wasn't saleable," Youssef admits. "As you can expect, Dad had been focusing on his health. Our realistic options were to invest back into the business or close it. Mum wanted to keep it. Dad's dream was to have one of his kids take it over."
Michael had studied biotechnology and accounting at uni. He was working as a financial planner when his father passed away. He quit his job and joined his mother, upholding his dad's dream. The company has now grown to support 1000 individuals and businesses.
That's not to say it has been easy. "When I took over, we invested into tech and people. In that one year, we made a six-figure loss. In the first couple of years, I worked a 60-hour week. Then we finally returned a profit."
"During those ‘anxiety days', I often felt ill-equipped because I wasn't a technical accountant. But one of my mentors said to me, ‘The smartest thing you can be is the dumbest person in the team'. For a while, I never really understood it, but now I do, because the only way the business could have grown the way it has was if I wasn't the main person responsible for the work. So now, I can say that I could step away from the business' operations and it would still work, which is pretty exciting."
"The greatest piece of knowledge I acquired through growing the company," he adds, "is that good accounting is not so much the debits, credits and tax. It's what it means for people and businesses. Good accounting is the language, the cornerstone of business. When you have an accountant who doesn't understand you or your industry, you don't understand them when they speak to you. The business can't grow. In my experience that's where almost every business comes unstuck."
With this knowledge in Michael's arsenal, his mission became helping businesses tell a better story. Despite knowing the alarming statistics on how many small businesses fail, he was determined to beat the odds. These two things gave birth to the idea of helping people start up a business. He wrote an ebook called "From Idea to Execution" about his conversations empowering companies to success and and the feedback was remarkable. That gave him the confidence to launch The Summit to Success Program.
"We're seeing more and more businesses drop off, so I believe programs like this are extremely important. It's not just about saving a business, it's about saving people's financial wherewithal, their future and, of course, also their dream," he says.
"Most businesses fail for lack of cashflow, bad marketing, bad management or lack of planning. It's not rocket science, but people are complicated and juggling four business imperatives takes knowledge, confidence and skill," Youssef notes. "The course provides everything I needed when I took over my dad's business. All the things I had to learn by making mistakes and incorporating the advice of hand-picked mentors. It really is the secrets of my success."
Today, HY Accounting stands as a premier accounting firm in Western Sydney, distinguished by its proprietary client engagement model forged over decades of expertise. Specialising in safeguarding clients' businesses and assets through proactive counsel and meticulous planning, the company excels in optimising tax strategies and providing strategic business advice. Its commitment to nurturing business growth and enhancing wealth is underscored by the application of battle-tested strategies.
*For more information contact:*
Michael Youssef
michael@hyaccounting.com.au
+612 9837 6148
*SOURCE:* HY Accounting
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