Art of Accounting: The most critical issue for a small firm
In the past few weeks I conducted two joint retreats, one for sole practitioners and another for two- and three-partner firms. Accountants from 10 states and Canada participated. It was the first time I tried this format and I had a great time as I believe the participants also did.
The participants were all dynamic, interested, serious and successful owners who wanted to move a little bit further than their present momentum would take them, and that spurred me on. They all make a good income and there was a desire to earn more, but it wasn’t a critical issue. Neither was marketing, except for one firm. They all were growing organically and referrals provided a steady stream of new clients. There was a desire to “learn” more about offering advisory services, but puzzlement about exactly how they could generate revenue from those, which led to a lively discussion with many ideas raised and discussed.
A personal feeling of pride was when the sole practitioners organized themselves after their retreat ended into an informal group along the lines of my Day 2 program, which was a series of focused discussions of what they believed were the most critical issues affecting their practices. Each practitioner contributed to the discussions, and clearly and passionately presented their views. It was an amazing morning. The topics identified were pricing, how to make better use of owner or partner time, use of technology and staffing.
One group chose pricing and the other technology. Both agreed that maximizing time and staffing were critical to their and their firms’ future. Three hours was allocated for the discussions on the chosen topics. While each topic needed much more time to be fully covered, some really good action items were decided upon.
The participants were all successful and wanted to get a few takeaways to implement in their practice. No one needed, or wanted, major surgery. My suggestion was that they should grab one thing they could implement the day after the retreat ended, and perhaps a month or two afterward implement another and then another a month after that. That would give them three new things by the end of the year. It sounds modest, but if a pattern is followed, where one new thing is added to a practice every month or so, then 50 to 60 new things would be introduced to the practice over the next five years, and that has to result in a significant impact. I know they got many ideas; I even introduced them to 21 services they could offer clients starting the day after the retreat ended, but I do not include this as the “one new thing” since it is client oriented. I also gave them a method for marketing and pricing those new services.
We ended with each participant suggesting what they would be doing “tomorrow.” They did not leave feeling adrift, as I told them I would be following up with each of them in about a month to discuss their progress and results. My experience with projects of this type is that the enthusiasm wanes as the steps away from the meeting accumulate. I now schedule followup calls to assess the progress with the implementation. So far I haven’t been disappointed.
The Joint Retreats were sponsored by Rick Telberg of CPA Trendlines, and the results exceeded our expectations. It also showed that the Zoom format was no hindrance and collaboration, camaraderie and interaction can be replicated in a virtual environment.
It turned out that the most critical issue for the participants was knowing they are not alone and have understanding peers they could share and voice their concerns with, and even have their actions challenged or affirmed when called for.
Do not hesitate to contact me at emendlowitz@withum.com with your practice management questions or about engagements you might not be able to perform.
Edward Mendlowitz, CPA, is partner at WithumSmith+Brown, PC, CPAs. He is on the Accounting Today Top 100 Influential People list. He is the author of 24 books, including “How to Review Tax Returns,” co-written with Andrew D. Mendlowitz, and “Managing Your Tax Season, Third Edition.” He also writes a twice-a-week blog addressing issues that clients have at www.partners-network.com along with the Pay-Less-Tax Man blog for Bottom Line. He is an adjunct professor in the MBA program at Fairleigh Dickinson University teaching end user applications of financial statements. Art of Accounting is a continuing series where he shares autobiographical experiences with tips that he hopes can be adopted by his colleagues. He welcomes practice management questions and can be reached at (732) 743-4582 or emendlowitz@withum.com.
