Who Should Earn More: The Managing Partner or the Rainmaker?

That depends.

By Marc Rosenberg
Author of “CPA Firm Management and Governance.”

In allocating partner income, a firm needs to look at all performance attributes of each partner.

From a 35,000 foot altitude, firms should be reviewing these items for each partner:

  1. The partner’s role in the firm, the relative values of the various roles (MP, rainmaker, client handler, QC expert, niche specialist, administrator, etc.) and how well the role was performed.
  2. The extent that the partner achieved his/her goals.

More on CPA firm management and leadership: Not Every Firm Needs a General Patton Overcoming the Three Biggest Obstacles in Succession Planning at CPA Firms CPA Firm Merger “Non-Negotiables”The “Aha Moment” in CPA Firm LeadershipLeadership Is Overrated: It’s Good Management that Makes Successful Firms40 Great Ways to Improve Firm ProfitabilityFour Management Metrics that Fool Even the Best-Run Firms

There are three different roles a partner can play: READ MORE →

Just Because You’re Smart Enough to Be an Accountant Doesn’t Make You One… [PRO Member Exclusive]

Six rules of professionalism that accountants need in their marketers.

by Bruce W. Marcus
Professional Services Marketing 3.0

There’s a wonderful cartoon in which a guy in a business suit is looking over the shoulder of an artist at his canvas. The caption, spoken by the artist, is “I used to dabble a bit in accounting, too.”

Then there’s the guy who said to me, “If you’re smart enough to be a CPA, then you’re smart enough to do your own advertising.” To which I replied, “Yes that’s true. You’re also smart enough to be a nuclear physicist — but it doesn’t make you one.”

There’s the guy who read a book about tightrope walking. He knew everything about tightrope walking — except how to do it.

More Professional Services Marketing 3.0: All Great Strategy Starts with “Why”Can You Hear Me Now?Managing Knowledge as a Growth and Management Tool The Secret Formula for Getting New Clients •  What We’ve Learned Since Accounting Marketing Was LegalizedDo Accounting Firms Really Want an ‘Image’?What Accounting Firms Need to Learn from Personal Financial Planning Specialists The Delicate Art of Positioning Your Firm in the Mind of the ProspectEven a Random Disaster Can Be Controlled with Risk Management

The point is that while marketing may not be nuclear physics, it does have its craft, its artistry, its techniques, its experiences, and its history. And if you’re not within the realm of all those things and more, you don’t know much about marketing. Marketing mythology doesn’t count for much. READ MORE →