and face-to-face with a master of practice management.<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nonly three limited-participation programs<\/strong>. \n<\/span>exclusively for twelve single-owner firms, or ten two-partner firms, or eight three-partner firms.<\/em><\/p>\nfollow-up coaching<\/strong><\/span> \n<\/span>\u2013 included in the price: get ed mendlowitz’s personal oversight after the first month \u2013 included in the base price. \n\u2013 optional: then add five more months after that (from 2nd<\/sup> to 6th<\/sup> month). about a \u00bd hour a month call to each participant. (this can be decided on up to one month after the retreat.) single-owner practices, $1,000. two-owner practices, $2,000. three-owner practices, $3,000.<\/p>\nthe value proposition & your takeaways<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n\nidentify the most critical issue confronting your practice and how to resolve it favorably.<\/li>\n specific ways to make more money without doing more.<\/li>\n delivering more in less time.<\/li>\n compare how you are doing with your peers and identify specific areas that can be improved.<\/li>\n you will interact with owners or partners with similar concerns and discuss how they deal with unsolvable problems.<\/li>\n conduct a forced self-assessment under oversight conditions.<\/li>\n participants will share their best successes and failures with ways to adopt what works and drop what doesn\u2019t.<\/li>\n ed will share with you his experiences as well as that of over 3,000 firms he has interacted with and will guide you toward making your life better<\/li>\n you will get a glimpse into your future and can decide if it is what you want it to be.<\/li>\n ways to make your practice more valuable and profitable.<\/li>\n you will be dragged away from working in your practice \u2013 to transition into working on your business \u2013 without sacrificing client service or staff oversight.<\/li>\n the four most critical issues of running your practice will be identified with solutions.<\/li>\n you will leave empowered to change what you do not like about your practice and how to enhance and even \u201cbottle\u201d what you like.<\/li>\n you will be energized by the resolve and direction that led you to own your accounting business.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nthe format & agenda\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\nthe retreat will be directed at indicating how similar firms manage their practices, handle daily conflicts, and plan for the future.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nthe zoom format<\/strong> will provide a forum for discussion, questions, challenging conventional paths you might be on, and empowering you to better manage your practice. it will arm you with the tools for providing more relevant advisory services to your clients by projecting the benefits to your client’s businesses.<\/p>\ned adds: \n<\/em><\/p>\ni firmly believe that the techniques we will use to examine your practice\u2019s metrics and would supply ideas to enable you to generate added profits.<\/em><\/p>\nthe retreat organizes and condenses high-impact successful actions that my partners and i have done and that i\u2019ve seen from over three thousand practices into a very short period at a cost that is around 1% of your annual revenues.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\ncontributing to your success<\/strong> at the retreat will be your full attention and participation, and thorough preparation by providing the requested information and completing the questionnaires. this program will change you and your practice. and it will show you how to make more money and service your clients better while working less and having more fun!<\/p>\nthe retreats will not use cookie-cutter techniques but pragmatic mind-expanding techniques that you could adapt and adopt to run your business better.<\/p>\n
this retreat is not for accountants that are in an accounting practice, but for business people<\/em> who are in the accounting business<\/em>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nthere will be three limited-participation programs, open only to twelve solo practitioners, or ten two-partner firms, or eight three-partner firms.<\/p>\n
do not miss this unique opportunity.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\na note on fees and scope of service<\/span><\/h3>\nretreats will not be done in the zoom format for firms with more than 3 partners. the objective is to assemble a group of similar size firms with similar types of issues, and the number of participants and size of the practices should accomplish that.<\/p>\n
additional charge: ed mendlowitz oversight after the first month (which is already included in price), for five months thereafter (from 2nd<\/sup> to 6th<\/sup> month). about a half-hour-a-month phone call with each participant. this can be decided on up to one month after the retreat.<\/p>\n\n\n\nfor single-owner practices, $1,000. for two-owner practices, $2,000. for three-owner practices, $3,000.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nthe work plan<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\nthree consecutive days (monday, tuesday, and wednesday), 4 hours a day 8 am to noon with two 15 minute breaks = 3\u00bd hours of meetings.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nthe preliminary call<\/strong> will be made about two weeks before the retreat to each participant, and a follow-up call after about a month. the preliminary call is to get a sense of the participants\u2019 issues so ed can prepare a tentative agenda to get the retreat started. but<\/em> it will definitely be changed based on issues that develop during the retreat.\u00a0 the follow-up call will check to see if participants are on track with what they said they would be doing, and to answer any questions they might have.<\/p>\nthe participants will be provided with the choice to not have their data confidential.\u00a0 this would only be done if every participant agrees to this.<\/em><\/p>\ned adds: i believe this would add value to the retreat. if everyone doesn\u2019t agree, then the data will be kept strictly confidential.\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\neach firm<\/strong> will provide its data and numbers two weeks before the retreat starts. everything will be kept completely confidential and no firm will be identified. to participate a firm must<\/em> provide its p&l information, but it doesn\u2019t need to provide everything requested.\u00a0 ed will provide a form.<\/em><\/p>\neach participant<\/strong> will be requested to complete a very detailed questionnaire that should take about three hours <\/em>to complete if done diligently.\u00a0 the more preparation that is done, the more the participant will get out of this program, and the greater the focus would be on their issues.<\/p>\ned adds: you will be spending 12 hours at the retreat and spending these three hours on your own as well as the preparation time to provide the requested information and the time on the pre retreat call.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nparticipants will get multiple benefits and value<\/strong> from this unique practice growth retreat, which only someone with ed\u2019s experience could provide.\u00a0 note that not every issue or problem will be covered in the retreat.<\/p>\nthe purpose of the retreat<\/strong> will be for the participants to develop a plan and get insights on how to:<\/span><\/p>\n\nmake more money.<\/li>\n service clients better.<\/li>\n work less.<\/li>\n have more fun.<\/li>\n and build a more valuable practice.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nissues that will not focus on those purposes will not be covered.<\/em><\/span><\/h6>\n<\/blockquote>\nthe schedule<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\nday 1<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\nwe will discuss the importance, meaning, and significance of the data provided; and the use of the realization numbers, and how this information can be used in managing staff and client services.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nfirms without time records will be asked to explain how they evaluate efficiency, effectiveness, and performance.\u00a0 the numbers and discussion points will be used to project forward 5 years to get a reasonable and workable model. participants should be able to use the model from the retreat to prepare their own projection.<\/p>\n
identifying data and names can be redacted. the group will review and analyze the participating firm’s numbers. the information requested will include the p&l for the past five years, and b\/s for the last 2 years, time & billing summaries for the last full year, 5 largest clients each of last five years, the total number of tax returns (all types) and how many were extended? staff list and how long with firm and salaries. how they met the last two people they hired. billing rates per staff person and hours worked last year and cost of benefits and days off permitted.<\/p>\n
all data will be aggregated on spreadsheets.\u00a0 each firm\u2019s numbers will be shown without identification with a total without outliers \n(ed will determine if there is an outlier.)<\/em><\/p>\nday 2<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\nan initial discussion will try to identify major issues confronting the participant firms that would put on the agenda for today. one-half to 1 hour.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nyou would spend \u00bd hour to 1 hour on each of 3 to 5 issues.\u00a0 some examples: staffing, succession planning and exit strategies, owners or partners compensation, profitability, new product development or innovation, client accounting services, wealth management, client service, clients outgrowing their accountant and how to recognize and stop that from occurring, what to do about unprofitable clients, family trees of clients, pricing strategies and methods, technology and virtual work, backup strategy, risk management, keeping current, partners stagnating, not having fun, partner or practice lethargy or lack of excitement and managing partner role.<\/p>\n
\ned adds: some of these issues could consume a couple of days, but we will try to focus on covering the most critical issues that will affect the participant\u2019s practice growth and touch on them briefly with the purpose of your using what we discussed to develop an agenda for the firm\u2019s development.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nday 3<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\nreview the five-year projection modeled on day 1 and refine the model.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nexamine the direction your firm is headed in and whether it indicates stagnation, reasonable or accelerated growth.\u00a0 note that not everyone wants to grow but some desire to maintain their firm as is or on the trajectory path it is on. this will also be considered. \ned adds: i was like this when i left two practices and will share some of my experiences in this.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ncomposition of practice in 5 years.<\/li>\n services that will be offered in five years.<\/li>\n a discussion of whether today\u2019s largest clients still be with your practice in five years.<\/li>\n 10 consulting services you can start selling tomorrow, and how to market and charge for them, with detailed \u201chow to do it\u201d checklists.<\/li>\n last hour: recap of takeaways and conclusions and assignment of responsibilities with a timetable and person in each firm overseeing performance. will also cover how solos can provide oversight on themselves.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nthe end result of the retreat will be: \n<\/strong>you will have a plan on how to make more money, service clients better, work less, and have more fun. \nplus: you’ll have a more valuable practice<\/em>.<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\napplication required<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\nafter signing up, participants will be required to provide the following information for acceptance into the program<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nif information is not available, that\u2019s ok, just state that. also do not read anything or draw any conclusions about the importance or validity of any of this information.\u00a0 what you have, and do not have, will help in the preparations, and these questions are designed to provide participants with as much information that could be provided in a relatively short time with as little added bother to you as necessary.<\/em><\/p>\nincomplete or rejected applications will be provided a full refund,<\/em><\/p>\nof course, all information provided will be kept completely confidential.<\/em><\/p>\n1. preliminary information<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\ncontact person<\/li>\n firm name<\/li>\n address<\/li>\n city, state, zip<\/li>\n direct phone<\/li>\n email<\/li>\n firm website url<\/li>\n for each person participating in retreat:\n\nname and title<\/li>\n direct phone<\/li>\n email<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n2. general metrics<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\ngross revenues last year<\/li>\n # partners<\/li>\n # accounting staff and paraprofessionals<\/li>\n # admin and others<\/li>\n # staff that started with the firm<\/li>\n fees collected from your largest client in the past 12 months<\/li>\n what percentage of your fees are priced based on:<\/li>\n time charges<\/li>\n fixed fees<\/li>\n bundled fees<\/li>\n negotiated fees before an engagement starts<\/li>\n negotiated fees when an assignment is completed<\/li>\n competitive bids<\/li>\n other<\/li>\n if the firm was peer or quality reviewed, please provide a copy of the last report and attachments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\u00a03. specific metrics<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\nprofit and loss summary for last 6 calendar years and 6 months of 2021 if significant differences from the prior year including the following:\n\nsales \u2013 cash or accrual basis \u2013 however, you keep track of it<\/li>\n total payroll and all benefits<\/li>\n partners\u2019 aggregate profits<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n total chargeable and nonchargeable hours for each of the last 6 years<\/li>\n chargeable and nonchargeable hours for each person for the last calendar year<\/li>\n schedule of fees and chargeable time for each client group<\/li>\n schedule of fees and chargeable time from each industry client is in (or if not available then for the top five industries clients are in)<\/li>\n schedule of fees and chargeable time by services performed for your clients (or if not available then for the top five services your firm performs) examples of services are audits, reviews and compilations, tax services, valuations, consulting, bookkeeping services, payroll preparation<\/li>\n if available, total fees billed or collected for each client compared with that client\u2019s chargeable hours multiplied by the billing rates for each person working on that client (comment: total fees billed or collected \u00f7 total time charges = realization. this is a very important metric.\u00a0 try to combine client groups and all their entities together.\u00a0 the grouping includes every business entity and individual return with common ownership.<\/li>\n if the firm offers asset management services\n\ndescribe how it is administered<\/li>\n amount of assets under management at the end of each of last six years<\/li>\n commissions or referral fee collected in last year<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n a listing of all current staff, how long with firm, and approximate total years working in public accounting, including partners and their current billing rates. staff names can be replaced with a letter or number<\/li>\n current status of last two people hired by the firm and if no longer with the firm how long they were with you and where they went when they left; and how they were recruited<\/li>\n balance sheet as at the end of your last two calendar or fiscal years<\/li>\n accounts receivable aged schedule at end of each of the last 6 years<\/li>\n work in progress summary for most current data that is available<\/li>\n descriptions of the last five business or organization clients, or major project engagements, you received. include referral source, gross fees, and nature of the client or engagement<\/li>\n do you classify clients by \u201cdesirability\u201d categories such as a. b or c clients<\/li>\n how does your staff get their cpe, e.g. in house cpe, society programs, self-study, webinars<\/li>\n if you have a 1- or 5-year business projection, please provide<\/li>\n organization chart, if available<\/li>\n how often do you have partner meetings out of your office or in a conference room in your office that does not permit interruptions, if any?<\/li>\n please provide, if available, the firm numbers, statistics, and\/or kpis that are given or made available to the partners each month, or more frequently. if not done then state that nothing is provided<\/li>\n how much of the practice\u2019s revenue growth in the last calendar or fiscal year has been from acquired clients, new clients, and from existing clients, if available<\/li>\n if you purchased a practice or any clients and payments are being made, please provide a copy of the contract and identify the payments made in the last full year.<\/li>\n what percentage of revenues from the acquired practice has been retained on an annualized basis on the one-year anniversary?<\/li>\n how are staff scheduled and by whom?<\/li>\n if staff sign employment agreements, provide a copy<\/li>\n date of the present buy-sell agreement, or if a solo, your practice continuation agreement<\/li>\n what practice management software you use<\/li>\n who is the primary go-to person when there are software or it problems<\/li>\n who is the firm\u2019s primary outside it consultant, if any<\/li>\n name and position of the person that does the firm\u2019s billing<\/li>\n what are the firm tax season overtime policies, including when tax season starts, minimum hours, payment for overtime, and days off if permitted<\/li>\n if a tax season bonus is paid, how is it determined and when is it paid?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\ned adds: the more you provide, the better prepared i will be.\u00a0 if you do not have something, do not prepare it specifically for the retreat.\u00a0 if you do not want to provide something, then don\u2019t. \u00a0you can redact the names of clients and staff if you wish.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n4. partner or owner questionnaire<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\nare you happy with where your practice is today?<\/li>\n if not, then identify what you are not happy with and suggest how you would change it so you would be happy.<\/li>\n do your partners agree with you or are you the only one not happy with something? if you are the only one, that is a different issue than would be covered in a strategic planning meeting and should be worked on separately.<\/li>\n where would you like your firm to be in five years?<\/li>\n what would you change or do to get to where you would like to be in five years?<\/li>\n will you have the infrastructure necessary for your firm in five years, and how and when would you start developing that?<\/li>\n do you really want to be where you said you wanted your firm to be in five years?<\/li>\n do your partners agree with you?<\/li>\n if no, identify the differences and see if you can agree on where you all want the practice to be.<\/li>\n are you happy with what you are doing today?<\/li>\n if there were no constraints or money issues, what would you prefer to be doing in five years, and would you want to be doing it with your present partners?<\/li>\n are there any services you would like to start working on yourself that you are not doing?<\/li>\n are there any services you would like your practice to start doing?<\/li>\n how do you feel you have grown in the last five years and are you reasonably satisfied with this growth?<\/li>\n have you acquired any new skills in the past five years?<\/li>\n do you feel you would have liked to acquire or needed to acquire any new skills in the past five years?<\/li>\n what follow-up do you have with business clients after you\u2019ve provided the deliverable (e.g. tax return, audit, review, or other financial reports, valuation, opinion letter) you were engaged for?<\/li>\n how many times a year do you initiate a call to your typical business client?<\/li>\n how many times a year do you initiate a call to your typical 1040 client?<\/li>\n how many added services or engagements have you received in last year based on the calls you initiated to clients?<\/li>\n who has been your #1 referrer of new business during the past 3 years?<\/li>\n how do you reciprocate to your #1 referrer?<\/li>\n how do you reciprocate to your referrers of new business?<\/li>\n what staff people or people would you want to retain, no matter what?<\/li>\n where do you see that staff person positioned five years from now?<\/li>\n if you were just being hired by this firm, what would you expect to be doing the first week and how would you want to be integrated into the firm\u2019s culture? and advise if this is presently being done<\/li>\n can you describe your firm\u2019s culture?<\/li>\n do you feel you have too few or too many meetings with your staff and partners, or is it just right.<\/li>\n who do you usually have lunch with?<\/li>\n for a typical month (of 20 days) how many times do you have lunch with the following?\n\nwe are working virtual and eat lunch at home. (if so, then respond to the following based on the year preceding the pandemic, i.e. 2019)<\/li>\n with a partner<\/li>\n with a staff person<\/li>\n with an admin person<\/li>\n with a client<\/li>\n with a prospect<\/li>\n with a referral source<\/li>\n with a vendor<\/li>\n alone at my desk<\/li>\n alone in a restaurant<\/li>\n other<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n what practice management courses or webinars have you taken in the last two years?<\/li>\n \u2026and did you go alone or with a partner of someone else, and if so, who?<\/li>\n what practice or business management or leadership books have you read in the last two years?<\/li>\n have you ever read any of my books?<\/li>\n do you read accounting today web edition or other daily e-letters at least twice a week?<\/li>\n do you have a five-year growth plan for yourself?<\/li>\n how have you grown professionally during the past five years?<\/li>\n are you satisfied with that growth?<\/li>\n do you feel you are using your time in the most beneficial manner you can?<\/li>\n if no, please define what you are doing that you feel you should not be doing…<\/li>\n \u2026and what are you not doing that you feel you should be doing.<\/li>\n do you feel you are charging your clients the appropriate fees?<\/li>\n do you feel your compensation is adequate, good or great or should<\/em> be better<\/li>\nwhat do you feel is the primary reason a client would want to use you…<\/li>\n \u2026and your firm (if different from the previous response)?<\/li>\n what are the 4 or 5 most critical issues facing your firm?<\/li>\n what is the single most thing you would change from your practice if you could?<\/li>\n what would you like to take away from this retreat?<\/li>\n how do you expect to benefit from this retreat?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n5. also, please provide your suggested questions.<\/strong><\/span> \nthese will provide information on organizing the retreat.<\/em><\/p>\n\nquestions you would like answered<\/li>\n items you would like to lead a discussion in<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nyour session leader: \ned mendlowitz<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n