| Keynote Speeches for CPA & Consultants |
|
How to Pass the Torch without Getting Burned Based on Bill's book, "Securing the Future: Building a Succession Plan for your Firm," this lecture focuses on how to structure and operationalize your CPA firm in order to best facilitate a smooth transition/succession to the younger leadership within the firm. Given the number of baby-boomer CPAs that will retire in the next 10 years, the shortage of management staff, the likely buyers' market that will evolve, it is critical that each firm have a succession plan that they start following immediately. But successful succession is far more the by-product of implementing fundamental business practices than the legal issues and agreements. This session will:
Format of Session: Lecture Typical Duration: 1 to 8 hours Partner Compensation The buzz word for the past decade around accounting firms has been "Accountability." While everyone seems to be talking about it, very few firms seem to be doing it. And for accountability to work, it has to start with the partners. This session will cover issues such as:
By the end of the session, we will have walked through some of the most commonly found formulas as well as how to structure new formulas either around led or lag indicators. Upon completion of our two hour session, we will have uncovered the necessary hurdles you have to address in order to create a dynamic partner compensation system that will easily change with your business. Format of Session: Lecture Typical Duration: 1 to 2 hours Investing in Your Firm This lecture is about what CPA firms should be doing to build an infrastrusture that can sustain the organization over a long term. In too many firms, the partners are taking our more profits than the organization can really support -- slowly letting the firm deterioriate. Some of the topics covered in this lecture include:
Format of Session: Lecture Typical Duration: 1 to 8 hours Staff Motivation and Management Our profession is suffering from a staffing crisis - we have more work than we can find people to do it. This situation won't change significantly for about a decade. Therefore, we have to do a better job managing, retaining and motivating our staff. This session covers issues such as:
Format of Session: Lecture Typical Duration: 1 to 2 hours Positioning Your Firm to be the Succession Plan for other firms With so many baby-boomers about the retire that do not have a succesion plan in place, in our opinion, you will soon be able to take over firms at a fraction of today's market price. Take the time now to develop and formalize critical processes, operating procedures, governance, roles and reponsibilities, etc. so that you can seamlessly intergrate other firms into yours. This should situate you to easily double or triple your firm size as you position for firm to be the succession plan for others. This session will cover important issues like:
Format of Session: Lecture Typical Duration: 1 to 3 hours Firm Make-Over - Making Your Firm Attractive For Merger or Acquisition With so many baby-boomers about the retire that do not have a succesion plan in place, in our opinion, too many firms will be up for sale/merger at the same time. Simple Economics would dictate that this phenonomum will drive prices down. So, it is important to do some fix-up, clean-up in order to make your firm as attractive as possible in order to give you a better chance of getting the price you were looking for. This session will cover important issues like:
Format of Session: Lecture Typical Duration: 1 to 3 hours Dealing with the Generational Issues within a CPA Firm There is no question that every organization has to deal with and resolve many workplace issues that stem from generational differences. This discussion focuses on what some of those differences are, why the gap is smaller than we think, some steps we have to take to address them, and how three chasms get in our way of maintaining a clear perspective. The chasms are:
Once we understand the demographics and work environment changes that are taking place, we are much better positioned to put together challenges, expectations, benefits and work/life balance that will be appealing to employees of all ages. Format of Session: Lecture Typical Duration: 1 to 1.5 hours Moving from Expert to Facilitator/Advisor (based on Bill's book Start Consulting: How to Walk the Talk) In a time when traditional services are being squeezed by what the client is willing to pay, what our professional standards/legislation dictate that we do, and what our litigious environment is increasingly challenging, becoming our clients most trusted business (not just financial) advisor is one silver lining on a cloudy horizon. Businesses everywhere are asking new questions; instead of "how profitable are we," questions focus more on "where will our profits come from tomorrow." While we have the knowledge to provide this assistance, this session centers on augmenting and/or refining the skills required to effectively deliver these future focused facilitative/advisory services. Here are some of the session topics:
Format of Session: Lecture Typical Duration: 2 - 8 hours in a Lecture environment. In a lecture-role playing environment, this can be a 1-4 day skills building workshop. Do I Have to Resort to the Bottle The role of management has undergone rapid change. This session discusses how you can improve your ability to communicate and motivate those around you. Too often, we feel like we have done our job by working 9 or 10 hours a day, being technically competent and transmitting information when requested ("transmitting" being analogous to writing a note, putting it in a bottle, sending it out to sea, and assuming everyone got your message). Unfortunately, this just isn't enough. The higher you are in management, the more your job is about leading a group of people, which requires:
Good communication and improved motivation starts with becoming more aware of the non-verbal queues you are sending, differences between the way men and women translate information, how status impacts messages, and much more. Format of Session: Lecture Typical Duration: 1 to 2 hours Management on Purpose Instead of by Accident This session will focus on a number of best practices that can quickly enhance what the partners take home. In this session, we will discuss:
Format of Session: Lecture Typical Duration: 1 to 3 hours Dealing with Problem People In every firm there exists at least one "problem partner" and several “problem people.” The real question is, "Why are these people problems for the firm?" Is it that they are bad employees? Are they a problem because they expect too much for what little they offer? Are these people ineffective as well as leaches on the firm's resources? Or, is it that the firm has done such a bad job managing the issues, situations, expectations and enforcement of the partner/shareholder group that bad people are created and nurtured? This session looks at how to change the workplace so that you create an environment that minimizes -- instead of maximizes -- the spread of the bad people virus.
Format of Session: Lecture Typical Duration: 1 to 3 hours Here We Grow Again For years, all it took to build a successful practice was to perform quality work, especially when CPAs predominately performed a limited number of services (like tax, audit and financial statement preparation). Today, with more competition in the marketplace coupled with ever-expanding service offerings, each of us has to do a better job of promoting what we do, improving client satisfaction and actually living up to our mantra of being our "clients' most trusted advisor." This program looks at marketing from two perspectives; an active approach and a passive one. It is critical for firms to leverage both approaches to remain competitive, hold on to our existing clients and win our fair share of new clients. This session will include discussions such as:
Format of Session: Lecture Typical Duration: 1 to 3 hours Pitfalls to Avoid in Partner Agreements The vast majority of CPA firms have partner agreements. However, most of them are created, executed and stuffed in the filling cabinet never to be seen again until one partner uses the agreement against another. This session focuses on ways to avoid common pitfalls encountered in partner agreements. We will discuss:
Format of Session: Lecture Typical Duration: 1 to 2 hours Selling without Feeling like a Salesperson This is a review of the ingredients required to identify opportunity and convert client need into business without feeling like a salesperson (and staying true to our trusted advisor relationship). In order to sell traditional services, many times, anything short of spitting on your potential clients is adequate. Someone else sent you the business and someone else is requiring that the service you offer be done. However, with the growth of advisory and many niche services, the rules of the game are changing. No outside regulator is requiring your client to buy these new services. Therefore, an entire new persuasive skill set is required. It's easy for us to walk into our clients' offices and identify ways to improve operations. The problem occurs when we 1) tell them how much it will cost for us to provide assistance, and 2) try to convince them that now is the time to hire us. This session, which includes a number of exercises, will help you identify hot buttons, quantify the value of your involvement and fine-tune your business development skills. Format of Session: Lecture or Lecture and role playing Typical Duration: 1 to 2 hours in a Lecture environment. In a lecture-role playing environment, this can be a 1-4 day workshop Developing Your Firm's Marketing Plan For years, all it took to build a successful practice was to perform quality work, especially when CPAs predominately performed a limited number of services (like tax, audit and financial statement preparation). Today, with more competition in the marketplace, coupled with ever-expanding service offerings, each of us has to do a better job of promoting what we do and why people should do business with us. This session focuses on developing a marketing plan to accomplish this and keeps in mind the delicate balance between the cost and expected benefit. Format of Session: Lecture Typical Duration: 1 to 2 hours |
