Ask Yourself: Why Are You Successful?

I recently bought a new car.  I was sitting in the office of “the finance guy,” who just turned 30 and seemed astonished when I told him what I do for a living.  He clearly was ambivalent about being “the finance guy.”  He asked me:  “What do I do to be successful?”

What follows may appear as shameless self-promotion, but my purpose is to set the table for what should make you, the partner in a CPA firm, successful.

My response to the “finance guy”:  (1) Working with a thousand firms over 20 years has exposed me to hundreds of best practices and thousands of ghastly ones.  Every client is the beneficiary of this experience; (2) This experience enables me to quickly analyze and identify a firm’s issues so I can rapidly move to the solution stage;  (3) I am constantly alert to the personality and behavioral aspects of helping partner groups solve their governance issues and (5) I provide my clients with concrete, doable recommendations that really work.

What partners do to succeed:

Trustworthy.  Partners exercise good judgment, never circumventing policies and procedures or ignoring questionable client practices.  Clients trust their partners to get the help they need.

World class service.  Partners focus on satisfying clients’ needs and providing “oh wow” service quality, resulting in strong client loyalty.  Most successful partners have relationships with their clients that border on being a friendship as well as the CPA connection.

Partners give their clients good ideas and great value. The ideas come whether the clients ask for them or not.  The ideas are not limited to accounting and tax, but real world challenges that businesses face every day (consulting).

CPA firm partners know people.  They are the quarterbacks of the business world.  If they can’t do it themselves, they know others who can.  Clients rely on great referrals from their partners.

Nurture and mentor staff.  Successful partners go beyond merely being “nice” to the staff.  They help staff learn and grow.  Staff advance under their tutelage.  Clients benefit tremendously from a CPA firm that employs great staff.

Empathy.  Genuinely cares about people.  Without empathy, a partner cannot lead effectively.  And if you can’t lead, it’s unlikely you will be successful.

Bring in business.  Bringing in clients is the most important function in a CPA firm that is the hardest to do.  But partners find a way to do it.

What partners do to succeed should directly impact CPA Firm Partner Retirement and Bringing in New Partners:

• Partner retirement benefits are all about building the value of the firm and the contributions made by each partner to continuously build that value. The value of the firm is created by partners’ successful performance in all areas of the firm.  These contributions should be reflected in partners’ relative compensation and buyout benefits.

• Decisions to bring in new partners should be directly correlated to staff’s demonstrated performance in the areas discussed in this post as their potential to build on that performance.

Be sure to consult our guides on both of these critical topics.

Team player.  Truly successful partners help out other firm members and seek advice from others on their own clients.  They develop strong teams beneath them.  I often ask MPs of highly successful, profitable firms what accounts for their success.  Almost every response is “our partners live and breathe our firm’s Core Values.  Every day.”

Delegators.  A partner’s job is to bring in business, super-please clients, nurture staff and help manage a part of the firm if they are so assigned.  Performing (1) billable work that staff should be doing and (2) internal admin work that firm administrators should be doing is taboo to successful partners.

Avoiding complacency.  Partners in CPA firms make real good money.  Way more than their parents earned.  Way more than they ever thought they would earn.  It’s easy for partners to get fat and happy.  It’s easy for partners to get in a mindset of not wanting to be part of the firm’s plans to grow and diversify.  Successful partners are never too old to stop learning new things.  They are never satisfied.

Partners have specialized expertise.  Clients value the specialized expertise that CPAs have in their industry.

Partners have a back-up.  If the clients’ main partner at the CPA firm is not available, and an important matter is at hand, they know others at the firm to call.  Firms call this “multiple touch points.”  This way, if the lead partner should suddenly leave the firm, clients will stay because they value their relationships with these other people.

Team player.  Truly successful partners help out other firm members and seek advice from others on their own clients.  They develop strong teams beneath them.  I often ask MPs of highly successful, profitable firms what accounts for their success.  Almost every response is “our partners live and breathe our firm’s Core Values.  Every day.”

Delegators.  A partner’s job is to bring in business, super-please clients, nurture staff and help manage a part of the firm if they are so assigned.  Performing (1) billable work that staff should be doing and (2) internal admin work that firm administrators should be doing is taboo to successful partners.

Avoiding complacency.  Partners in CPA firms make real good money.  Way more than their parents earned.  Way more than they ever thought they would earn.  It’s easy for partners to get fat and happy.  It’s easy for partners to get in a mindset of not wanting to be part of the firm’s plans to grow and diversify.  Successful partners are never too old to stop learning new things.  They are never satisfied.

Partners have specialized expertise.  Clients value the specialized expertise that CPAs have in their industry.

Partners have a back-up.  If the clients’ main partner at the CPA firm is not available, and an important matter is at hand, they know others at the firm to call.  Firms call this “multiple touch points.”  This way, if the lead partner should suddenly leave the firm, clients will stay because they value their relationships with these other people.