Chemistry and Mutual Respect Matter

Beakers containing colorful chemicalsWhy and how to evaluate chemistry among partners.

By August J. Aquila
What Makes a Great Partnership

Birds of a feather flock together according to the old saying.

MORE ON GREAT PARTNERSHIPS: Why Expectations Must Be Defined | Why Shared Values Are Important | Why ‘Walking Together’ Is So Important | 6 Ways to Pay Partners | How to Build a Better Firm Through Teamwork | 8 Questions to Analyze Your Pricing | 24 Points for AFTER the Deal Is Done | 5 Questions for Every MP to Answer Honestly | 6 Practical Ways to Innovate | How to Combine Two Firms after Merger: Carefully
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

You can generally judge your chemistry with someone in the earliest minutes of meeting them. It’s often best to trust your first impressions, which are based on a lifetime of experience interacting with other people.
READ MORE →

When to Ignore a White Lie: A Cautionary Tale

Businessman covering face with handsHow well do you represent your firm?

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

The Passport to Partnership study collated a number of responses in a conversational style.

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: RFPs: 7 Things NOT to Do | 7 Mistakes to Avoid When Going After New Work | Why Communication Matters So Much | 3 Questions to Evaluate Your Firm Culture | Competence: More Than Technical Skills
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

The main example that really stood out as the major indicator of a need for each future leader to be able to “convert” new business is showcased below and was repeated many times in various different ways.
READ MORE →

RFPs: 7 Things NOT to Do

7NotAllowedPlus 6 keys to the perfect proposal.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

What makes a written proposal become accepted by the potential client – every time?

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: 7 Mistakes to Avoid When Going After New Work | Communicate Your Worth and Value | Best Practices for One-on-One Communication | Learn to Read Your Firm’s Culture | Experts Advise What Partnership Takes
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Proposal writing is a micro-science in its own right but here are the proven principles that it takes to get proposals accepted.
READ MORE →

7 Mistakes to Avoid When Going After New Work

Error stampedPlus 9 business development metrics you should be measuring when checking your conversion rates.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

Like it or not, the 21st-century accountant is in the relationship-building business. When a qualified accountant learns the art of developing those relationships in such a way as they empower the practice to be able to forecast its new fee income each year, the accountant becomes a profit center and their value to the firm increases tenfold.

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: Communicate Your Worth and Value | 5 Ways to Evaluate Your Communication | 7 Levels of Communication Management | 5 Ways to Get Buy-In for Firm Culture | Partnership: Competence Is Just the Foot in the Door | Are You Partner Material? Maybe Not
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Our fourth “C,” Conversion, has flirted with being the top answer from respondents in the Passport to Partnership study and has featured in over 80 percent of all firms interviewed as to what makes a senior manager stand out as a potential partner.
READ MORE →

Why Shared Values Are Important

Happy multi-ethnic business team with thumbs up in the officeBe specific to help everyone walk the talk.

By August J. Aquila
What Makes a Great Partnership

After trust, the second building block for a successful partnership is having shared values. It does not mean that partners are clones of one another, but partners agree upon the firm’s shared values, on how they are going to treat each other, the clients and the employees. Shared values are what bring a group of individuals together to achieve something that they could not achieve individually.

MORE ON GREAT PARTNERSHIPS: Great CPA Firm Partnerships Begin with Trust | Are You Driving Your Best Partners Crazy? | 7 Warning Signs for Your Firm | The Checks and Balances Your Firm Needs | Don’t Weed Out the Roses | Back to Basics: 25 Ways to Grow Your Practice | 3 Ways to Halt a Poor Leader | 8 Questions That Staff Ask In a Merger
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

The concept of core or shared values gets a lot of press and most professional service firms’ websites promote their core values to prospects, clients and recruits. But, like so many management ideas that are on the soft side, shared values are often more talk than reality.
READ MORE →

Communicate Your Worth and Value

Search for valuePut it all together for both clients and coworkers to see.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

An advisor is trusted when they can show that they

  • took responsibility for their end of the bargain in the client engagement,
  • educated the client of their responsibilities,
  • offered prompting and assistance throughout but then allowed the client to ultimately govern themselves in terms of following through on their commitments.

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: 5 Ways to Evaluate Your Communication | Why Communication Matters So Much | 3 Questions to Evaluate Your Firm Culture | Competence: More Than Technical Skills | Are You Partner Material? Maybe Not
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

This then empowers the advisor to make a commercial decision when the client now faces the consequences, as to whether they want to communicate even more assistance to make things all better for the clients and gain huge appreciation and emotional capital.
READ MORE →

Great CPA Firm Partnerships Begin with Trust

chemistry formula partnership science_1000009273-120613intAnd the 7 other key ingredients in the CPA firm success formula.

By August J. Aquila

Great partnerships are like great love affairs. There needs to be chemistry. After more than 36 years of consulting with large and small professional services firms, I’ve seen all sorts of chemistry. Some partnerships were almost toxic, most were tolerable and a few were great. Let me share my observations about great partnerships and how they got that way.

MORE on GREAT PARTNERSHIPS:  Are You Driving Your Best Partners Crazy?  |  Why ‘Walking Together’ Is So Important  |  The 4 Best Ways to Use Pre-Retirement Partners  |  7 Warning Signs for Your Firm   |    6 Ways to Pay Partners  |  Work Together Better in 11 Steps  |  The Checks and Balances Your Firm Needs  |  How to Build a Better Firm Through Teamwork  |  Drop Politics, Be Accountable  |

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

Many new firms, and some longtime firms, unfortunately, don’t give a lot of thought to “What makes a great partnership?” Their main concern is survival. But the sooner a firm starts focusing on what makes it a great partnership, the better off it will be.

READ MORE →

What Partnership Gets You (and Doesn’t)

Now Or Later Keys Shows Delay Deadlines And UrgencyALSO: The eligibility, costs, obligations and benefits of partnership.

By Marc Rosenberg

Sometimes partners ask for more than they reasonably should expect. Here’s a rundown of what a partner is and is not entitled to:

MORE ON PARTNERSHIP: Equity Vs. Non-Equity Partners | New Partner vs. Manager: What’s the Difference? | Research Results: How Firms Pay New Partners | Keys to Bringing in New Partners

 

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

A partner is entitled to:
READ MORE →