here at 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间, ed mendlowitz answers some of the toughest questions practitioners can throw at him. he’s the right one to ask. after more than 40 years in the business – building his own practice, running the firm, and eventually selling it to a major regional firm, withumsmith+brown, where he remains a senior partner and consultant to professional services clients – he has the answers. we’re happy to have him at 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间. send your questions for ed here, or chime in with comments below.
question: i bought a tax return practice in december from a person that was charging $180 per hour. my rate is $300 per hour so i did not make money and i would like to know what i could do to raise fees so i don’t continue to lose on it. read more →
partners need to be something more than production machines. [checklist included.]
by marc rosenberg, cpa
increasingly, cpa firms are adopting the compensation committee system for allocating partner income. firms are finding that systems such as formulas, pay based on ownership percentage or pay-equal no longer work. when we compare the usage of the compensation committee today to 5 years ago, the increase in usage ranges from 16% to 26%.
if there is one overarching cause for this significant trend, it’s that firms are understanding that their partners need to be something more than production machines. in addition to bringing in business, managing a client base and working billable hours (all of which continue to be important values in a compensation committee), partners need to excel in intangible areas such as helping staff grow and develop, developing specialized expertise and teamwork. the compensation committee is one of the best systems available to cpa firms to allocate income based on this diverse array of performance criteria.
when firms begin operating their new compensation committees, there is a lot of initial confusion and bewilderment about how to get started. for example: read more →
setting and maintaining goals is a fundamental part of our lives, but also one of the most challenging. two companies which do it better than most are proctor & gamble and nokia: they work with their customers to set mutual goals so they can achieve joint outcomes. this is a great way to do business.
five tough questions and five good tips to take your firm and your personal effectiveness to the next level.
gary adamson, former managing partner of brady ware cpas, has become a living legend in the profession for taking his firm from a small, local player to a regional contender. but he’s the first to admit he didn’t do it alone. coaching helped. in fact, during his career at the firm, he used two business coaches.
the art of giving and taking feedback for a happy office.
by rick telberg
we’ve been asking accountants and finance managers how well their offices use feedback to keep folks happy. it’s clear that a little do-and-don’t advice seems in order for some of the nation’s accounting firms and finance departments.
our sources report some pretty big problems on the do side. out of seven questions in a cpa trendlines study, five showed that fewer than half the accounting and finance offices nationwide were doing what they should be doing all (or most) of the time.
for instance, feedback offered on behavior — rather than on personality: only eight percent of managers do it all the time, and only 37 percent do it frequently. a full 20% do it rarely or never at all. ouch! whoever’s doing the feedback could use a little feedback themselves.
cpa firm decision-makers hammer out the best clues to identify partner-potential professionals and how best to recruit, develop and retain them at a strategy session in milwaukee.
hint: it’s not about how smart they are or hard they work.
by rick telberg
how do you spot the hidden rock stars on your staff?
and what do up-and-coming tax, accounting and finance professionals need to know to get ahead in today’s profession?
rick telberg leading the strategy session
these aren’t idle questions. many firms and individuals are struggling with these issues right now. but don’t take it from me. just listen to the decision-makers from a dozen firms i met with in a milwaukee hotel recently. the mission: learn how to deal with a looming new staff shortage. some took away solid action plans. “our firm,” said one, “is trying to develop our rock stars and this showed me we need to be doing more.” another said, “excellent! it gave us the details and the ‘how-to.’”
green team's top talent indicators notes
interestingly, the milwaukee group’s conclusions and recommendations closely parallel our related research findings. so we can be fairly certain that we’ve obtained some of the profession’s favorite strategies.
you could probably adapt one of our methods for your firm. in milwaukee, we divided the group into two teams, the green team and the blue team. after some preliminary coaching, each team hammered out a list of the top five talent indicators – the clues in an employee’s behaviors and attitudes that demonstrate the highest likelihood of the best roi for a firm’s time, energy, and money in training, coaching and mentoring. then the group filled several flip chart pages with their lists and hashed them out with each other. after identifying the key indicators, we moved on to identifying the best strategies for recruiting, grooming and retaining top talent.
blue team's top talent indicators notes
by far, the top predictive indicator across all firms is the trait, “they are always trying to improve.” it comes in a few flavors or variations. for instance, the green team at the milwaukee strategy meeting favored a passion for “continuous learning.” the blue team preferred, “they do ‘extra credit’ – things that the partners wouldn’t normally expect from someone at their level.” but they add up to the same thing.
most of us are thrust into the managing partner role in our firms with little or no training or coaching. who teaches you to be an effective mp? how do you know if you’re performing well?
your partners won’t tell you. if you’re new to the job, do you just do it the same way as your predecessor? is that the best approach for the firm? who will mentor you?
as i can attest from experience in running my firm for over 20 years, it is a thankless job. i just took a deep breath and jumped in. the best feedback that most of us get is from other managing partners and from benchmarking ourselves against other firms. there are not too many places to turn for help.
whether you are new at the job or a veteran, here is an approach to organizing the job into six buckets that will help you. it is how i approached the responsibilities and it lends itself to dividing and conquering with the ability to delegate some responsibilities.
by edward mendlowitz, cpa partner, withumsmith+brown
time sheets are an essential part of any professional services organization. some people contend that they should not be maintained since they should not be the basis of any pricing – that fees should be solely based on the value to the client. i disagree.
retreats are critically important to a firm’s success.
a retreat provides an opportunity for key people to meet off premises to plan for the future, devise strategies, form goals and address problem areas. another objective of a retreat is less tangible, but equally as important: to enhance the quality of the relationships among co-workers and improve communications between them.
here at 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间, ed mendlowitz answers some of the toughest questions practitioners can throw at him. he’s the right one to ask. after more than 40 years in the business – building his own practice, running the firm, and eventually selling it to a major regional firm, withumsmith+brown, where he remains a senior partner and consultant to professional services clients – he has the answers. we’re happy to have him at 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间. send your questions for ed here, or chime in with comments below.
