Does Your Firm Need a COO?
Source: Solutions for CPA Firm Leaders
The following is a complete reprint, reproduced with permission, of a blog entry by Rita Keller.
It's an old topic but continues to be a very important one.
Right now, I am hearing so many CPAs say:
- I am so busy.
- We are so busy.
- We won't be able to get to that project this year.
- We have good ideas but fail to implement them.
- We have been talking about the same things at our retreat for five years!
Whether you are a sole practitioner, a three-partner firm or a 33-partner firm, your managing partner (and partner group) needs a strong right hand to carry out initiatives. You need someone who has only one client – your firm!
Call [him or her] office manager, practice manager, firm administrator, chief operating officer, director of operations . . . even executive assistant.
I know many CPA practice managers who truly run the firm.
Free up all partners from administrative projects and tasks. A COO can immediately save the MP 10 hours per week. At an MP billing rate of $300/hour, that's $3,000.
Experienced CPA COOs save partners 40 hours per week and more.
Don't have one? Have one [who's] not performing at a high enough level? Deal with it now so you can go into busy season with an advantage.
For inspiration, read this article, which features Sharon Trabbic, COO of William Vaughn Co., in Maumee, Ohio.
For the complete entry, read “High Priority: Hire A Firm Administrator/COO.”
From Solutions for CPA Firm Leaders, the blog of Rita Keller, August 12, 2016, ritakeller.com/blog/.