How to Be a High-Value Firm

Source: RedZone, Play of the Month

The following includes excerpts, reproduced with permission, from an article by Accountants Advisory Group.

The most successful CPA firms understand that their goal is to continuously build value for their owners, clients, and employees. There is a direct correlation between high-value firms and their competitive edge for quality clients and staff. A high-value firm:

• Has strong leadership with effective management that doesn't procrastinate when there is a need for tough decisions.
• Has talented partners and staff who create “delighted clients” who refer new business to the firm.
• Fosters a marketing and practice development culture.
• Treats succession planning as a daily process not as an annual event.
• Continuously upgrades the client base and carefully manages client practice management statistics.
• Provides staff with advancement opportunities and career development programs that guide and manage performance.
• Rewards overachievers handsomely and does not tolerate underachievers, whether they are partners, professional staff, or administrative personnel.
• Possesses strong niches or industry expertise that is highly respected and branded in the marketplace.
• Researches and monitors the competition, and adapts services to clients' wants and needs.
• Embraces leading-edge technology and trains its professionals to use it.
• Has an infrastructure that provides partners and staff with opportunities to succeed and to eventually take the firm to higher levels of success.

For the complete article, read “Building Value in Your Firm.”

From RedZone, Play of the Month, Accountants Advisory Group, February 2012, www.AccountantsAdvisory.com.