Daily Archives: September 28, 2013

What Does Being a Partner Mean?

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How to set and enforce standards of performance.

By Robert J. Lees and August J. Aquila
Creating the Effective Partnership

Partners are the culture in a professional services firm – what they believe, what they reward, what they do and how they do it determines what and how things get done.

But, one of the problems we consistently hear about is the lack of clarity in what being a partner means. And, in the absence of clarity the partners typically fill the gap by doing what they think it means, with all of the differences of thought and behavior that inevitably brings. READ MORE →

15 Reasons Why Accounting Marketing Isn’t Like Selling Toothpaste

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It’s not the product marketing they teach in college.

by Bruce W. Marcus
Author of Professional Services Marketing 3.0 

Accountants have historically not been concerned with the market. They are concerned with being good accountants, and meeting their own personal needs for professionalism. They are concerned with merely getting clients. That was sufficient pre-Bates, but not now, because it’s not a competitive approach in a seriously competitive environment. READ MORE →

Identifying the Right New Partner in a 26-Point Checklist

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Responsibilities, abilities, and deliverables.

Bringing in a new partners is part art and part science. Marc Rosenberg, after studying thousands of CPA firms, has a few suggestions on the science, with a series of checklists covering intangible, financial, legal, practice development, production, client management, technical, administration, and supervision-related benchmarks. READ MORE →

5 Tips to Managing and Motivating Virtual Team Members

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By Sandi Smith Leyva, CPA
Accountant’s Accelerator

It’s not uncommon for even the smallest of businesses to have employees and contractors all over the world.  Right now, I have an employee in the Ukraine, two employees in San Jose, a virtual admin in Orange County, a warehouse team in Indiana, a transcriptionist in Las Vegas, partners in New York, Chicago, Missouri and Atlanta, and a coach in Sydney, Australia.

In the last few months, I‘ve moved from San Jose, Calif., to Plano, Texas, while my team stays put.   And it won’t hurt my business one tiny bit. Here are five tips to help your virtual team play at their best. READ MORE →