One size does not fit all
Four strategies focused on smaller firms
Focusing on client needs, expanding beyond
traditional audit and tax services, outsourcing
activities from the Big Four, and employee engagement are four tactics that smaller firms
are using to increase revenues this year.
“Smaller firms should proactively target
and solicit clients from larger firms that may
be open to a cost saving,” said Arlis Esnough,
president of the Association for Accounting
Administration and firm administrator for
Hansen, Jergenson, Nergaard & Co. in Min-
neapolis. “Smaller firms also need to increase
their exposure, especially where they can
showcase technical knowledge, as well as get
the firm and its principals known and in front
of their target market and community.”
There are choices: deciding between the
personal touch and the kind of direct partner
contact a small firm offers, or choosing a large
firm with more expensive fees to buy higher-
level knowledge and experience. “Smaller
firms can be more competitive in pricing
services,” Esnough said. “Making firm prin-
cipals available to prospects and clients is a
good way to demonstrate an improved service
model. Be proactive, responsive and commit-
ted to deadlines. This demonstrates a services
model that many larger firms, with higher lev-
erage, sometimes struggle to provide.”
Growing advisory service lines is another
important area. Certainly, regional and local
firms continually rely on them to build rev-
enues, often cross-selling these services from
a firm’s tax and assurance client base.
“Just being a compliance provider is a losing proposition; without advisory services
such as litigation support, bankruptcy consulting, business valuations and other management consulting services, clients will ultimately move on,” said Michael I. Daszkal,
BY scott H. c Ytron
In this challenging environment for the accounting profession,
large regional firms, and small and midsized firms, have to
come up with innovative strategies to grow their top line.
CPA, managing partner of Daszkal Bolton,
a full-service firm in South Florida. “The key
to communicating this information is to con-
sistently provide clients and referral partners
with a steady and focused stream of informa-
tion about the value the firm can offer.”
In markets where the Big Four also have of-
fices, firms of all sizes with specialty practices
or niche interests can take on outsourced
business from large firms — an unusual, but
quite profitable additional source of revenues
for smaller firms. Dawn Hanna Bell, immedi-
ate past president of the AAA and firm ad-
ministrator for Wright, Griffin, Davis and Co.
in Ann Arbor, Mich., said that smaller firm
partners should create personal relationships
with partners in larger firms in order to cap-
ture some of this outsourced business. “This
would facilitate larger firms feeling more con-
fident and comfortable with the concept of
outsourcing to smaller firms,” she said.
Big Four firms have outsourced benefit
plan audits, tax compliance, internal control
outsourcing, SOX 404 and international tax
to Daszkal Bolton. “In my experience, there is
an art form to selling to the Big Four,” Daszkal
said. “In our case, we use our Big Four-type
talent, quick response times and reasonable
fee structure to keep prominent in the minds
of Big Four referral sources. Since our firm
has a large number of former Big Four profes-
sionals, we are able to work through multiple
channels to stay connected and identify out-
sourced opportunities as they arise.”
Finding and retaining talented profession-
als remains an ever-present issue. In contrast
to large firms, smaller firms offer a faster track
to partnership, with these partners managing
fewer associates. This provides a conducive
professional environment and, eventually, a
higher level of client service.
Scott H. Cytron, ABC (www.absolutecytron),
is a frequent contributor to industry publications covering professional services. Reach
him at scott@cytronandcompany.com.
Learning
FRom pAge 31
will be required to schedule a meeting with
each person. The list should include the
managing partner, human resources director, other partners, the marketing director,
direct reports and anyone else who plays a
key role in the organizational process. During the meeting, each person should tell the
new hire what they do and how they can be
of assistance.
Division/niche introduction meetings.
No one can describe what the firm does better than the person in charge of each division
or niche. Provide a list of each division and
niche manager. These may or may not be the
same people the new hire has already met
with; however, the purpose of the meeting
is different. Have the employee schedule an
hour-long formal meeting for that person to
describe what they do and what it means for
the firm. Provide brochures and other reading
materials for the new employee to review at a
later time and use as a reference.
This process should be the top priority
Bryan Shelton, mS, is a consultant at The
Rainmaker Consulting group.
for all new hires, and they should be given a
deadline of no more than two weeks to complete it (depending on the number of people
they will need to meet). This allows them to
immediately connect with key personnel, as
well as developing a better understanding
of the firm.
EXPECTATION AND VISION
New employees can easily get swallowed up
by the mundane. To prevent this from hap-
pening, sit down your new employee and ask
them, “What do you want to do in the future,
both short-term and long-term?”
Allow the employee to describe their vi-
sion for the future and use this information
to mesh with the firm’s overall strategic vi-
sion. Once you understand a final goal for the
employee, use the information, along with
the firm’s strategic vision, to develop an ap-
propriate career path. This should look like a
process map for the employee’s career, with
defined positions.
The next step is to define the expectations
to be eligible for advancement to each position. These expectations could be technical
skills, soft skills, business development training, mastery of software or anything else to
develop that person for the next position.
INDIVIDUAL PLANS AND FEEDBACK
Now that you and your new employee have
defined expectations and there is a clear path
for advancement, it is time for the employee
to take ownership for their success. An individual strategic plan is a development tool
that defines the person’s goals for the next
year. An individual strategic plan should have
between four and 10 goals derived from the
defined expectations, as well as other tasks
important to the development of the person
and the firm.
The plan should be tied to bi-monthly or
quarterly accountability feedback meetings.
This allows the employee to know exactly
what they should be working on and how they
are doing on each task within the firm.
PROVIDE RESOURCES
One of the biggest complaints I hear about
younger employees is their lack of basic
knowledge in completing the work. However,
the solution is relatively easy to set up and
maintain. Develop a workflow/white paper
that details a self-guided training program us-
ing exemplary work for common tasks within
your firm. This can be done using hard copies
or online, and should be set up in a similar
format having:
A blank document that will be the fin-
ished product (i.e., a tax return);
