training

Key Advice for Potential Partners

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Woman's hand pressing words "ASK AN EXPERT"BONUS: 8 questions to ask plus words from our expert council.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

You may want to become a partner, but that requires leadership. Do you display the traits you admire in leaders?

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: How to Create an Upward Spiral | The DNA of a Practice Leader | What Does the Next Generation of Practice Leaders Face? | Commitment: A Cautionary Tale | How to Build Your Pipeline | 6 Keys to the Perfect Proposal | Communication Can’t Be Overrated

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Partnership pointers

1. Take time to identify a leader you admire from any walk of life. Jot down a criterion for emulating their success behaviors. How many of these criteria do you fulfill yourself already and what do you yet lack but can work on right away?

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25 Ways to Turn Good Firms into Great Firms

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leader addresses co-workersProfitability and benchmarking are part of it, but not all of it.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Retreats

The 25 best practices below have been extracted from Rosenberg’s work with great firms over a 20-year period. Few firms do them all, but the elite firms do most of them.

MORE ON RETREATS: Partner Buyout 101 | 27 Tough Questions Every Firm Needs to Address | 10 Benchmarking Missteps | 18 Essential Management Questions to Cover at a Retreat | Thinking of Merging? Discuss It At a Retreat | Retreat Logistics: How Long, What Kind? | Why Do CPA Firms Conduct Retreats?

What grade would you give your firm on each of these?
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How to Create an Upward Spiral

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Businessman bursting through flames and fireworksWill you be forged in fire or flutter away like ash?

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

Unhappy and difficult clients help our firms to improve our client management skills and present opportunities to refine our leadership skills.

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: The DNA of a Practice Leader | Surviving Vs. Thriving | What Does the Next Generation of Practice Leaders Face? | 6 Keys to the Perfect Proposal | What Conversion Really Means for Partners | 12 Ways to Determine Your Competence | Passport to Partnership: New Research Shows Wide Gap between Partners and Partners-To-Be

GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

It is tough for us to build a successful firm without difficult clients or internal personnel issues in order to provide learning experiences for us to build a robust and commercially successful infrastructure.
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Everyone Needs Strategic Planning

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Ed Mendlowitz CPA The Practice Doctor Q and A7 main areas, with specific tips for each.

By Ed Mendlowitz
The CPA Trendlines Practice Doctor

QUESTION: Do you recommend strategic planning for a small accounting practice?

MORE PRACTICE DOCTOR Q&A for PRO Members (Go PRO here): Help Clients, Increase Revenue: Make Sure Everyone on Staff Knows Your Firm’s Full Menu of Services | I Made Partner, Now What? | How to Sell Your Practice | When a Client Balks at Necessary Work | 14 Ways to Use Timesheet Data | How to Make Staff a Team Again | It’s Not Sales. It’s Your Duty | How to Notify Clients of a Partner’s Retirement | Closed for Tax Season? Looks That Way | Is Joint Representation a Conflict? | Lowballing and Why It (Usually) Doesn’t Work | What Goes in a Client’s Permanent File?

ANSWER: I recommend it for everyone. It is important for larger firms to make sure the partners are on the same page.
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The DNA of a Practice Leader

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Manager standing in front of wall of TVsA lesson in customer service and reputation.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

In order to become a commercially aware practice leader, we need to understand the DNA of leadership.

MORE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: Surviving Vs. Thriving | It’s Not the Challenge, It’s Your Response | What Challenges Really Mean for Partners | Commitment: Your View and Your Firm’s | Businesses Place Value on Expertise |  For PRO Member exclusive content: Sign in here or upgrade to PRO now

Any woman or man leading an accounting firm, who chooses to overcome each operational or client challenge as it if their future depended on it, will not only succeed in practice but will become capable of delivering advisory value to their clients unmatched by their competitors, thus achieving true differentiation.
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Surviving Vs. Thriving

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Plant seedlings growing out of coin stacks , both increasing in sizeWhat commercial awareness really means. Plus 5 reasons firms don’t thrive … and how to solve them.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

A big concern in recent years has been how the incoming partners will purchase equity or fund the capital account and exit of a retiring partner.

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: It’s Not the Challenge, It’s Your Response | Why Hitting Your Numbers Isn’t Enough | What Do Your True Colors Say About Your Commitment? | How to Build Your Pipeline | 6 Keys to the Perfect Proposal | Communication Can’t Be Overrated | How to Read Your Firm’s Cultural Blueprint | 12 Ways to Determine Your Competence | Passport to Partnership: New Research Shows Wide Gap between Partners and Partners-To-Be

Much has been written that examines the mathematical complexities of this topic but the bottom line is simple. Would-be partners in the age demographic of 28-42 are part of a generation who are already heavily borrowed in the form of credit card debt, mortgage debt and other forms of personal loans.
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It’s Not the Challenge, It’s Your Response

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Young businessman standing on edge of rock mountain and looking acrossBONUS CHECKLIST: 5 questions for self-evaluation.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

When challenges come our way, regardless of what shape or form they arrive in, our world seems to lose a bit of brightness, there’s a little knot in the gut and a sense of peace broken.

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP for PRO MEMBERS: Why Hitting Your Numbers Isn’t Enough | What Do Your True Colors Say About Your Commitment? | What Commitment Really Means for Partners | How Well Do You Represent Your Firm? | Communication: Putting It All Together

The question is, if we were watching our own responses to these trials, would we appoint ourselves as the next partner of the firm?

Let’s examine 30 checkpoints to test your own, or your staffers’ abilities, to overcome challenges.
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Why Hitting Your Numbers Isn’t Enough

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Three darts hitting a target bull's-eyeAre your projections sending your firm backward?

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

How do you react to challenges?

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: What Does the Next Generation of Practice Leaders Face? | Commitment: A Cautionary Tale | How to Build Your Pipeline | 6 Keys to the Perfect Proposal | Communication Can’t Be Overrated | How to Read Your Firm’s Cultural Blueprint

Ask yourself and answer these questions when considering the current and future “challenges” behaviors that you’ll employ.
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