No Pain No Gain: Using the Salary Review to Your Maximum Advantage

Now that busy season has passed, many practices are entering another ultra important season: performance and salary review season. It is arguable as to which is the greatest point of pressure during this time - determining the raise, parting with the money, analyzing the performance or delivering the review. For all of the time and pressure involved, the review process should be a great strategic planning project, but for many, it is just a mechanical and painful exercise. As they say, “No pain, no gain.” Here are some great ways to gain strong advantage from the review process:

Empower the Participants
It is important to move away from the standard mechanics of the review process to make the purpose much more relevant. Either through a survey, a meeting or both, have the staff prioritize the top 3 value points that they feel the review process should produce along with the top 3 current negatives of the process. Make the same inquiry of the owners and coordinate the results so the program can do what is truly needed – highlight specific goals for firm improvement.

Stress the Holistic
Every individual has a role and contribution to make that enriches the firm at large. Make sure that all members of your organization - administrative and professional - have goals that support the strategic plan and initiatives of the firm. Service organizations are people driven and their people need to deliver what the firm promises. In order for a firm to satisfy its strategic goals, its people must have specific responsibilities and a review process to assess them. The process should establish benchmarks for improvement that foster achievement.

Dig Deep and Be Ready to Go Deeper
Accounting firms frequently need to perform in a team mode where success is driven heavily by communication. The most critical elements of communication on a team are listening and honesty. To ensure enhanced performance, each member of your firm should prepare a self-evaluation with appropriate goals. Not only should members write their self-evaluations, they should verbally present them to their peers as well. Upon presentation, their peers should weigh-in with constructive feedback. People should express how they feel and be held accountable, while at the same time, their peers should validate the communication process. The more each member knows about his or her teammates, the better the team will perform and the better the end result will be.

Incentivize
Many people thrive with incentive. The most universal incentive is money, so that clearly needs to be part of your program. Think about some innovative approaches for financial reward. Establish your budget for pay increases and set aside a pool for targeted achievement. The achievement can be firm wide or personal. Firm wide achievements include meeting certain metrics for collections, realization, new business, peer review etc… Individual achievements are based on the goals of individuals and their relative/actual performance. Consider rewards that are money oriented but not necessarily money: extra time off, additional perks, additional technology or technology toys, family minded benefits, etc. Owners in most firms I know have a financial package with a constant draw along with ups that come from the financial achievements of the firm. It is vital to train your employees to the realities of the business world so that they become entrenched in the business of public accounting – the more owner-minded your people are, the better your firm will be.

Motivating, coaching and communicating are keys to maximizing performance. Since these are ongoing efforts, you won’t be able to look forward to the day when you no longer have to go through the review process. But if you do the right job and follow the steps outlined here, strong results will be the incentive for you to actually look forward to the process in the future.

Programming Your Firm's GPS

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could simply enter a destination for your practice and a voice would immediately tell you all of the necessary steps to get you there?  Of course it would - but mapping out your strategic steps is not that short a process, and it can’t be based on one person’s voice.  After tax season it is very common to evaluate the road that you and your practice have traveled, and to see whether a change in course is appropriate. While the answers aren’t as simple as plugging in a destination, the mapping process can be very easy if you take the following three steps:

Use Structured SWOT Analysis:
Every organization has strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – Agreeing on them and then addressing them are crucial to strategic success. Provide all of the owners, owners-in-training and upper level staff with a SWOT form that limits their response to no more than 5 issues and potentially isolates the SWOT to specific areas of practice and concern. Each participant must return the analysis within a week of receiving it. Responses must be very specific and examples should be encouraged.

Survey Your Team:
Coordinate a face-to-face and confidential survey/outreach process. Once the SWOT has been completed, meet with participants to probe and get a handle on the passion and credibility of their responses. Survey the entire staff as to the highs and lows of busy season and selectively test issues raised in the SWOT.

Confer & Consult:
Convene an offsite meeting with the owners and owners-in-training to process the SWOT information and the surveys. The meeting should be planned out in advance, and if need be, an outside facilitator should be engaged to build the agenda, navigate the meeting and coordinate the follow up. Success will come from developing priorities in a tactical fashion and creating buy-in.  An outsider is often the best resource to utilize to establish these results. At a minimum, it may be worthwhile for different owners to take ownership of different elements of the meeting. The conclusion of this process should bring an action plan that the participants believe is both rigorous and attainable.

By following the three steps noted above, you will channel the many voices of your firm so that you can hear a central message that will assure you are all on the same page for making the right turns to get to your destination. 

Tax Season Survival Kit

Every tax season has its own issues and personality, but there is no question that they all put you to the test. Lots of effort goes into planning for the season, but things never completely go as planned. At this time of year, partners are on the firing line, and they are always on the lookout for winning strategies. A survival kit for partners - especially Managing Partners - can certainly come in handy at this time of the year. If I were to pack a survival kit for this tax season, I would want to make sure it included the following:

Sense of Humor
The old adage “one day you will look back and laugh at this” is so true for the episodes that take place at this time of year. Rather than saving the laughing for later, find the way to start laughing now. Turn the negatives into positives. Think about keeping track of the funniest moments or the dumbest things, and then share them at your after tax season celebration.

Wish List
Create a dynamic running idea roster that you keep in electronic form and maintain privately. The best ideas are often hatched during tax season and then inadvertently forgotten. At the end of each week, review your list and tweak it so that by the time the season is over, you have a prioritized “to-do” list to improve things for post tax season and future tax seasons.

Spontaneity
The time for new and different is here. The stress of the season can easily compound and get out of hand. Be prepared to use surprise elements to break the ice and introduce fun and relaxation to the climate. You will be spending more time with your peers than any other folks at this time of year - turn it into a fun and pleasurable experience. Take a page or two out of a special events calendar at a camp and spontaneously put them to use… if clients are in the office, include them as well. Be open minded to creative thought from all corridors of the office. 

Problem Meter
A Managing Partner never likes surprises - especially during tax season. Every week or two, depending on the practice size, the Managing Partner should be advised by each of his partners about the top problems they are facing and how they plan to resolve them. The Managing Partner will then have the right information to prioritize the problem solving and keep the meter from getting overloaded.

Megaphone
The firm’s goals, rationale and tax season successes must be broadcasted boldly - with clarity and frequency. The more the members of the team can understand, the better they will perform and the more supportive they will be to each other. Don’t be afraid to share business development, revenue, production and satisfaction results and targets - the more transparent the better.

Of course, most folks have their own favorite tools. The above recommendations may already be part of your favorites and, if not, hopefully after you try them they will be. Successful firms don’t just survive during tax season, they actually thrive. Our Managing Partner On Call program is an ideal platform to make things thrive during tax season. Contact us or explore our webpage further for details.

When Opportunity Knocks - How to position your proposals to win

Now that October 15th is behind us, it is most likely that your practice is entering one of the best seasons for an accounting firm – “the proposal season.” So many prospective clients wait until after they receive their final tax forms or procrastinate until they can’t wait any longer to change their accounting relationship. Many firms find that the majority of their new clients will come on board between October 15th and February 15th. There are many variables that will influence your ability to win the” battle of the firms” for a new client, but positioning your proposal will go a long way towards enhancing your chances to land the client. How you package your proposal in written form may be a critical differentiator as you position your firm for success. Consider the following as you create your package:

The Fee Is Number One
Your prospective clients are no different than your current clients, and for that matter, you as well – money matters a great deal. No matter how professional your proposal looks, people turn to the fee section first. The fee is evaluated on the basis of value, not just as a raw number. Your fee will be the right number only if you succeed at conveying the value to be received. Value is not a measurement reflected by a laundry list of services. It is all about the knowledge that is made available and the method with which it is delivered.

Less Is More
Entrepreneurs are pressed for time. The more paragraphs and pages, the less likely your message will be appreciated. Draw attention to matters of emphasis by using bold print and highlights. Commit to performance standards and deadlines and make sure they are points of emphasis. Be sure to detail your specific experience. Expertise is often appreciated in terms of statistics – so for example, rather than saying you represent physicians, indicate that your physician clients represent “x” percent of your client base, practice revenues or service hours.

Customize
Include observations and potential recommendations for improvement. The more the prospect and/or client believes you have an intellectual interest in them, the more they will feel that they will be well taken care of. Charts and graphs are useful to present your observations. Recommendations should be presented in a visually appealing fashion, but should not be ready for implementation without your assistance.

Personalize
To many owners, their business is their child. Be sure to incorporate priorities that were shared with you and passions that were stressed as they relate to the business or finances. Taking note of the impact of the business on the owner’s personal life, and then communicating how your services will impact their personal life, is an important hot button.

Be Accountable
Spell out how you provide service along with time parameters for turn around and response. Share relevant success. Put yourself on the line for any failures in your service delivery model.

Winning the “battle of the firms” is about much more than the written product. The written product is a permanent reminder of the impression you made and the impression you want to leave. Doing your homework in advance and during the proposal wars is critical. For details on how we help firms win the “battle of the firms”, contact us about our targeted programs.

Happily Ever After – The power of tax filing deadlines

Most of us enjoy stories that have a happy ending. September 15th and October 15th mark important endings for the filing of tax returns. Tax returns can tell an important story for you and your clients. The conclusion of the tax preparation season is a significant final chapter in your firm’s 2010 story. Finishing these stories with a happy ending sends powerful messages to your clients and to your firm. The messages you send as you wrap up the tax-filing season will generate important financial benefit to your firm. Follow the steps below and creating a happy ending will be easy:

Tell your story
Make sure you use the opportunity to complete the individual tax returns to share the stories that are embedded in the other returns previously filed for the client. Relate the intricacy of how the planning was effectuated with the completion of the 1040. If you merely forward the 1040 when ready, you turn your work product into a poorly appreciated commodity. Conduct a special meeting, deliver the return and tell the full story. By making your expertise obvious, you command appreciation for the value you generated.

Confirm conditions
Take the time to be sure that the client understands the story. Engage the client in a conversation that will allow them to describe the results of your efforts so you can be sure they can appreciate the results. Use the conversation to get an update on current conditions so that you can offer ideas for meaningful tax minimization for 2010.

Get personal
When you issue the bill for the tax returns, make sure that a letter accompanies it. The letter should highlight topics raised in the meeting that you had, explain how gratifying/important the client is to you and thank the client for their confidence in you and for giving you the opportunity to provide your service. As you prepare the bill, consider the value that you achieved for the client and be sure that you compute the fee with that value in mind.

Plan for the next chapter
Promptly prepare an engagement letter for the next year’s services. In tandem with that engagement letter, demonstrate your commitment to your clients’ well being by scheduling appointments for year-end tax work along with sessions for scoping out areas of emphasis. Consider a minimum fee arrangement for the engagement, and if you elect to go in that direction, position it well before tax season.

Happy clients present a pathway to a profitable practice. Clients expect quality from their professionals. The sensitivity and professionalism of the delivery system is what distinguishes the powerhouse organizations. September 15th and October15th provide you with the opportunity to have “happily ever after” be more than a fairy tale ending for you and your clients. Deliver and package your knowledge – it may be an old story, but it is one that will produce the happy ending you are looking for!

Beat the Competition!

Hitting the bulls-eye for your firm in tough times

Study successful business operations and you will find that they commonly seize opportunities and use them to their advantage. In fact, many of my entrepreneurial clients during my years in practice would tell me they made money the day they bought an asset - not the day it was sold. Sure, being a good negotiator is always a plus, but there are best practices that you can pursue with or without strong negotiating skills. The recession has created some very attractive strategic opportunities, but not enough CPA firms are capitalizing on the chance to energize their practices in an economically advantageous way. Pulling the trigger is a skill, and with practice, you learn to hit your target more precisely. Here are some definite bulls-eyes for your firm:

Marketing:

This is the perfect time to either start or upgrade your marketing effort. Budgets for marketing have been slashed dramatically, and as a result, marketing consultants, web companies, graphics businesses and advertising companies are all looking for business making the competition for business intense. The current conditions spell value. You can get significant bang for your buck and you owe it to your firm to do just that. If you have no campaign, then launch one, and if you have one, hold your providers feet to the fire and plan for upgrades. The opportunities are not restricted to outside resources. There are many folks who are looking for permanent positions. Salary possibilities for permanent positions are quite attractive for buyers and should be an important incentive to bolster or create an internal department. If you are on the cusp, then make the jump or consider sharing a marketing employee with another firm. Think about starting with a part time role that may eventually graduate to full time. Rainmakers market all of the time, but they are much more effective with a real marketing program. Conditions are ripe for you to help bolster the success of your business development process – take advantage of the conditions.

Talent:
Leading CPA firms live by the philosophy that there is always room in their firm for talented people. There are numbers of disappointed, unhappy but talented people in CPA firms. These folks are not just salaried employees - they include partners as well. There are numerous folks who have been laid off from private industry positions. Since CPA firms are in the knowledge business, the more knowledge you have to offer, the more significant your potential for profit. Now is the perfect time to upgrade your talent. Upgrading is not restricted to the upper level - it is for every level. Talented juniors and administrative professionals allow you great leverage. Greater leverage allows for higher profits. So it is imperative to think out of the box on personnel matters. Good citizens from private industry can be trained to become very valuable in the compliance functions of your firm. Accounting firms have been the hallmark for diversity for many years since they have been staffed with folks who have been trained and employed elsewhere. Partners who were not proper fits in one firm become super stars in another, and potential partners have been uncovered when they move from firm to firm. Salary structures and compensation systems have become much more attractive for buyers. Be aggressive and hunt down folks who will energize your firm. Be creative with your compensation packaging - part time, flex time, seasonal, temp to perm and incentive driven systems should all be pursued. There is a lot of competition for work – with the right people you only enhance your chance of success.

Tough times present unique opportunities for progress. Bill Gates started Microsoft during a recession. You too can excel in a challenging time period – there is a bulls-eye out there for you – now pull the trigger.

Mission Impossible: Finding a Successor for the Managing Partner

Most current Managing Partners of CPA firms will recall the opening scene of the TV series, Mission Impossible, when the members of the IMF were routinely selected to serve in a particular mission. They accepted the challenge with no questions asked. In contrast, it is easy to picture super talented partners in today’s CPA firms who would be the pick to succeed their current managing partner, but for various reasons, they choose not to fulfill the mission.  Finding the successor for the Managing Partner is a modern day mission impossible in many firms. In order to recruit the right candidates for this most important mission, Managing Partners need to take a hard look at their current performance model and then take a tactical approach starting with three key elements:

Leverage - Managing Partners need to expand the authority of others and narrow their own role

Accounting firms traditionally service their clients by maximizing leverage and delegation, but when it comes to firm management, these techniques are not readily applied. An administrative team with people who have the right titles and job descriptions is not enough. The Firm Administrator, Office Manager, Controller, CFO, Marketing Director and HR Director must be empowered to do a full job and not just be support personnel to the Managing Partner. Now more than ever you need to get your money’s worth from your administrative leaders. The firm’s economic commitment to administrative professionals requires you to maximize the decision-making role of the administrative group and to hold them accountable. Partners that you are considering to be worthy of your seat are accustomed to delegating to their team and holding the individuals accountable. Live by the same standards you set for your partners and make leverage and empowering a routine part of your performance model. Potential successors are leery to come into a world that operates differently from what they are comfortable with and believe in. 

Productivity – Managing Partners must be more client-centric 

Servicing clients is the golden rule at CPA firms. Charge hours and realization are key elements for successful engagement management, yet there are no comparable barometers for firm management. Most managing partners will tell you that the firm and its partners are their “client”, but would anybody really be comfortable with only one client. Managing Partners must experience the client service model just like the other partners, not only because it gives them common ground with the other partners, but additionally because they need to understand their product and be a role model for high level client service. Future managing partners will be uncomfortable relinquishing client responsibility for many sound reasons - not the least of which is personal economic protection. The current managing partner needs to demonstrate that there can be a productive balance and that having a multitude of clients is the right model. The managing partner should have practical standards for their productivity hours that are part of their performance review. They should be evaluated no differently than the rest of their partners who need to perform against a standard and be accountable for their variances. The successor candidates have developed a strong affinity for client service and you need to show them that level of service can, and should, be maintained.

Connectivity – Managing Partners must be relationship driven within their firms

CPA firms are made up of people.  In order to manage the firm properly, interfacing and connecting with people is critical. Managing partners have become very comfortable focusing on issues and initiatives that often distance them from the socialization and camaraderie that nurtures positive interpersonal relationships. The right candidates to succeed the managing partner will be people oriented and vested in existing relationships with their peers and associates. Authority may be enticing to some candidates, but the elimination of relationships will be a major deterrent. Managing partners must continue to be connected to the community within their organization. Mingling frequently with the partners purely for social purposes - as contrasted with conferring on business priorities - needs to be an active element of a managing partner’s routine. Conducting jovial and informal conversation with employees must be common. Managing partners must be human - that means they are connected and approachable. Candidates for succession will be prone to a collegial approach and are likely to prefer a limited tour as managing partner. Life after serving as a managing partner will be more difficult if relationships are cast aside while serving. Current managing partners should start to enhance relationships so they can be comfortable after they step down, be even better at their job and pave the way for their successor to be comfortable.

The life of a managing partner may not draw the same kind of interest of a hit TV show but it need not be the kind of production that discourages the right people from auditioning. Your mission is to make the life of a managing partner a comfortable reality. To help you tune your firm to a bandwidth that promotes a successful Managing Partner transition, we offer a customized program called Managing Partner on Call. We look forward to sharing our approach with you and to working together on a successful mission.

Asset Protection For Accountants

Mention asset protection to many CPAs and their expertise starts to flow freely, but talk about the asset protection measures they have implemented for their firms, and the conversation does not reflect expertise at all. CPA firms have two dominant asset categories – clients and personnel. The quality of these assets will vary from firm to firm - but they are the key power sources. Competitive forces are impacting client loyalty and heightening fee pressure. Economic tensions within firms and at home are setting the stage for personnel unrest and turmoil. CPA firms need to protect their most important assets, and the sooner the better. The course of action takes much discipline and effort. Here are a few ways to jump-start the process:

Activate Your Clients

Knowledge is a business treasure. Your clients turn to you for your knowledge and you should be turning to them for their knowledge as well. Start out with two key steps to tap into this valuable asset:

• Create Client Advisory Boards so your clients can help you evaluate marketing, strategic, administrative and industry oriented initiatives. The boards should be of a functional size and should meet anywhere from twice to three times a year at a minimum. Agendas for the meetings should be circulated in advance and minutes should be distributed at their conclusion. These boards should be managed in a business-like manner with leadership from both clients and the firm at the helm.
  
• Establish a Client Academy to mentor staff, clients and prospective clients on entrepreneurial excellence. The academy can encompass programs as simple as a buddy system for fellow entrepreneurs along with periodic coaching of personnel or more structured programs of intervention and education. Many firms find that starting an academy internally with a “meet the client" series is the right way to launch. In this setting, the clients tell their story and the audience is engaged with questions for the speaker. Typically, after a few presentations a coaching program will unfold.
  

Activating your clients is all about allowing them to experience how much you respect and value them. The more you allow them to play a role, the more loyal and committed they are to you - and of course, the more secure your relationship becomes, the more protected your assets will be.

Engage Your Personnel

The talent of your personnel is not just for the clients’ benefit - it is for the welfare of the entire organization. Begin to engage your personnel with the following procedures:

• Task forces composed of all kinds of personnel including partners are extremely useful and productive. These committees can address many different types of issues including but not limited to social media, technology, paperless processing, client communications, client appreciation, staff evaluations, merger integration and job management. Each task force needs to be charged with a specific responsibility and delivery date.
• Staff retreats are perfect forums for the summer. These programs should be all about educating the employees about firm news and facts and promoting employee involvement in creating initiatives for enhancing the success of the firm.  
• Round table conversations on specific topics should take place with a presentation to the entire group after the individual tables have talked. These events require an outside facilitator and bring strong results when the owners are invited to hear all the findings at the end of the day. Go back to basics and use the old fashion suggestion box – today penmanship is not a revealing factor as we can all use the computer. Ideas and complaints need to be heard and addressed.
  

The more that personnel feel vested and involved in the firm, the more they will be committed to it. Commitment, respect and communication are vital to insure a strong connection to your personnel and to secure sound relationships.

The engagement ideas that are outlined above, if handled properly, will deliver the kind of security that is in the best interest of the firm and it’s personnel. There are many more actions steps that should be a part of your asset protection plan. Asset protection for an accounting firm should be an ongoing process and not a disaster recovery program. We at Optimum Strategies are here to help you successfully enhance your most valuable asset…your firm! Feel free to turn to us at your convenience. We are proud to be a 24/7 organization.

Pushing the Reset Button - Vital Steps To Reposition Your Firm For Success

We are all conditioned to push the reset button when our favorite technology toy freezes or does not work, but what button do we push when our practice does not work right? If there actually were a button, when would be the right time to push it and what result should you expect? In contrast to our favorite technology gadgets, the reset button for an accounting practice is not something that will react to a delicate finger - It takes a powerful force and many well coordinated hands. The current business climate and the intense competition among firms has made it very clear that accounting firms throughout the country need to hit their reset buttons. To muster the right resources to reset takes at a minimum the following types of advanced preparation:

Investigation – you need to understand the value system of your clients and the business community. In general, clients are much more aware of their costs and are much more comfortable being demanding. Focus groups are a valuable mechanism to gain intelligence on your local business community, the views and values of clients and new innovations that may be part of your future efforts. Your future is linked not just to meeting the expectations of the business community, but to exceeding them and controlling them as well. Focus groups allow you to collect the data and responses that will dictate the level of effort that a reset will take and the potential timing for the results to become visible. To gain maximum value - be sure that you turn to experts to run your focus groups and that all participants are handled with the utmost of confidentiality. Depending on how much investigation you are going to do, the time line for meaningful results will vary. Investigations of this nature are not to be handled internally and should be well thought out with your outside consultant.

Empowerment – your staff and partners have to be confident that they have the authority to orchestrate change. Survey your staff and follow up with face-to-face meetings to determine how they would like to see the firm progress and how they can feel more comfortable with their contribution. Create task forces that include owners and staff and charge them with the responsibility of dissecting and reinventing your deliverables. The ground rules should be simple - all ideas are valuable but not all will necessarily prevail or be accepted. Accepting new ideas and making strides with their implementation is more important than simply setting a random quota on new ideas. Empowerment in this context is expected to have its share of compromise so that both management and staff make progress towards the firm’s benefit. Facilitating empowerment may require the help of an outsider and certainly will require patience. A business thrives when there is unity and cooperation – empowerment for the benefit of the firm should get people on the same page much more frequently.

Stratification – each person in the organization needs to understand their role, the importance of that role and how they should progress to the next station. Job descriptions and criteria for advancement should be easily understood and available for all to see including clients and centers of influence. Accountability needs to be defined so that it is not just a reporting upward concept. People need to be accountable to their peers and not just their supervisors. Firms that function as a team will generally enjoy strong performance. To have a functional team, the members of the team need to weigh in on the performance and impact of others on their team. Upward review of the owners and executive group is a must, and that includes input from the administrative and clerical crew. The ownership group must recognize that they are accountable individually to the other owners and employees and in totality to the entire organization. Stratification must not be all about reaching the more superior title but rather the more advanced level of accountability. Coaching, mentoring and goals programs when administered by the right people make stratification successful.

Taking the right kind of actions before you hit the reset button will enhance the results that you will experience. The right kind of reset will bring you back to success, not to how you were operating before. That kind of reset is only for toys.

Where’s the Beef? Steps To Prime Your Service Model

There was a time when this question generated a smile as people recalled a popular commercial that used the question as a tag line. Today, when people either ask or think of this question, no one is smiling - and it is not because they forgot the commercial or never saw it. The current economic climate has created a reality where clients are routinely questioning value and accounting firms are concerned about the contribution from both their partners and their staff. Questioning where the beef is certainly is not new, and without a doubt, the question is not the problem. The problem is taking the right steps to assure that your firm’s beef is grade “A.” Follow these key steps to make the grade:

BE POSSESIVE – Now, more than ever, you must look at your client’s business as if it were your own. Putting yourself in the clients’ position goes a long way to providing the right solutions and confirming your value to them. These efforts will spice up your value:

• Plan and conduct business retreats for at least each of your “A” clients. You want to be fully aware of all of their critical issues as well as an architect for the solutions and a sounding board for their thoughts. Clients place little value on the compliance skills that accountants bring and generally can’t even understand them. They have a need for support, advice and recommendations and can comfortably value these contributions.

• Provide not only state of the art guidance on using the laws and regulations to your client’s advantage, but be sure to have an arsenal of extended resources to bring to them as well. Resources like your contacts can frequently be of great value to your clients. Make a point of routinely networking on behalf of your clients and being in tune with the type of connections from which they would benefit. Encourage your clients to document their interests so you have a handy memory jogger to use as a tool to invite your contacts at a later date.
  

• Develop a schedule for recurring contact beyond the formality of a retreat so you remain in the loop as a timely resource. Aligning yourself with the pulse of your clients’ business not only demonstrates your interest in the client, it positions you to take possession of the meat of your relationship.

BE AGGRESSIVE – Look at your firm as if it were a client’s business. Take an unemotional outsiders perspective on the strategic fiber of your business. We are in a people business and the owners set the tone and the example for the organization. Partners need to be passionate about the purpose of the partnership and the value that each of them brings and provides as owners and leaders. Heightened passion in your ownership group is crucial.

• Each of the owners should be required to do a public self evaluation in front of their peers and each of the owners needs to respectfully comment and honestly critique. You must find ways to capitalize on your individual and mutual strengths and commit to hold each others’ feet to the fire. If an owner’s contribution is below the value standards that others reach you must deal with it and be sure that all of the owners are aware of the issue and the resolution. Clients expect value from your owners and you must expect proper value from each other.
  

• Create Value Growth Plans for each of the owners, share them with the ownership group and meet every other month to evaluate the success of the plans.

• Turn the heat up on your leaders – start to cook the beef and if the beef is not the right kind, go out and get the right kind whether by merger, acquisition or recruiting. Tough times merit aggressive and progressive actions. Market conditions and post tax season flexibility provide the right kind of opportunity to serve the kind of beef that clients and prospective clients will savor – be determined in your efforts to make the best available.

Successful firms should prosper in good times and bad. Concentrating on creating value is a prime way to assure success. Take the steps like the ones I have discussed and you will be creating the right kind of value.