everyone needs to be on the same page. here’s how.
by ed mendlowitz
202 questions and answers: managing an accounting practice
question: there seems to be disagreement among our partners on important issues in running our practice and we never seem to have time to discuss it or work things out. we are a three-partner firm with 15 employees and no one is designated as managing partner.
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answer: a suggestion is to have monthly partner meetings out of the office and an annual retreat. both of these have been covered previously but i will add some new ideas here.
any meeting out of the office is a big deal – it takes away from the client work you do. retreats are thought of as lasting more than one day and i would further distinguish them from the monthly meetings in that they should cover bigger issues that can provide a long-range strategic benefit to the practice.
i suggest the monthly meetings be held in a private room offsite, such as a local hotel. it would be with the three of you, but can also include “management” personnel who are important to the practice. start at 9 and end at 4:30 with a break to return calls from 11:30 to 12:00. continue meeting during lunch in the hotel restaurant.
use the first half hour to discuss what the agenda for the day will be. try to pick the items that will have the greatest effect on the practice. pick two or three items, or five or six, but only start with the most important, i.e., most impactful. reach a conclusion of at least one action item that you can all do. many times the partners entering the meetings bring their own agenda items only to have the participants agree on other items that are deemed more important.
do not expect major changes after the first meeting, but after a few such meetings there should be great results. it is a good process that works!
based on the success and progress of the monthly meetings, you can plan a retreat with an agenda made up in advance so there can be a running start.
these meetings and retreat can be done by any size firm – a two-partner, two-staff firm all the way up to a 100-plus partner firm with 500-plus employees.
also, now that you are on your way to a better grasp on your practice, you should read if you haven’t, my book, “power bites” and “the e-myth revisited” by michael gerber.
good luck.