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who to hire when it’s time to grow

young businesswoman speaking with client

management and review still will be needed.

by ed mendlowitz
202 questions and answers: managing an accounting practice

question: a cpa sole practitioner with a few part-time staff told me that he has come to realize that he no longer had a practice, but a business, and wanted to hire a person for “growth,” not just someone to help him get through the day.

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he wanted some suggestions of what type of person he should hire.

answer: i suggested hiring someone just graduating and training them. he replied that he felt it would take too much time to train a newbie, and was leaning toward a more experienced person. i explained why he would be “richer” with the entry-level person, and how he should train and provide oversight and sent him my staff training method memo, which had everything i told him laid out with arguments pro and con. i also pointed out that his big-picture view should be to become richer and work smarter, that he couldn’t abdicate his management and review, and probably would need to provide at least the last 10 percent to 15 percent of a job to complete every job.

result: he just hired someone a little more mature, but who did not have cpa firm experience. the results are not in yet, but i recommended a method that has worked for me, for withum, for most larger practices and all of the big 4. i also gave him a “required reading” assignment – “the e-myth revisited” by michael gerber. he told me yesterday that he is two-thirds of the way through the book.

2 responses to “who to hire when it’s time to grow”

  1. frank stitely

    i wholeheartedly agree with ed’s approach. it doesn’t take that much time to train someone new and there’s a hidden advantage. a firm with younger staff is more valuable when sold. if you have older staff about to retire, you limit your pool of buyers and thus your price. pe firms want younger staff.