Systems and Procedures: How to Make Your Office More Efficient

Systems and Procedures: How to Make Your Office More Efficient A good business owner understands that an efficient office is a key to success and profitability. Inefficiency in a business can cost the firm 20-30% in revenue. In addition to the tangible financial loss of time, lack of efficient processes and practices can result in loss of business from dissatisfied clients, turnover of good employees, and loss of service value. The key to avoiding these pitfalls is ensuring that your practice is managed with care and competence.   Establish and Enforce Policies and Procedures Clear and effective policies and procedures
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Managing Your Staff & Fostering an Environment of Support

When you first hired your employees, you essentially needed them to assist you in performing your accounting services. You’ve probably quickly learned how easy those ‘helpers’ could turn into your ‘work family.’ Now you’re finding yourself in a true leadership and management position, charged with supporting and growing your staff, as well as your business. Here are three suggestions to keep your management on par with success for your practice. Lead By Example You hear this advice often. You don’t want to ask your team to do something you, yourself don’t practice. But it’s so important in leadership and means more
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The BIG System for Company Success

The BIG System Many successful accountants rely on two universal truths to maximize individual and team performance: Clarity at a higher level gives purpose to a lower level. Success at a lower level supports achievement at a higher level. Many accounting firm owners know they should be working ON their business, not just working IN it.  Oftentimes accountants start their own business to experience business success, ultimate destiny, and create personal wealth. Some accountants succeed at achieving their initial goals. They create, establish and grow their business. Then they recruit employees and hire in contract specialists. At that point, many
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Build a superstar team with these 3 tips!

The question on the mind of small and large accounting firms in this job market is: where is the top talent that I’m looking for to fill my open position? The fact is that in this day and age, the candidate is in the position of power during the interviewing process. With the unemployment rate at a level we haven’t seen in quite some time, businesses are now more than ever in a desperate race to reach qualified candidates before they receive offers from competitors.  While a strong candidate may be an asset for your company, without the right dynamic
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Listen with Eyes Wide Open

Listen with Eyes Wide Open.   Try using your eyes to listen. It might sound funny, but the truth is your eyes communicate to clients that you are paying attention. Even in instances where you can’t greet a client aloud — perhaps you are in conversation with another client or on the phone — simple eye contacts speaks volumes.    Remember the 10-Second Rule. Even if you are busy with someone else, make eye contact with a client within 10 seconds. Simply capturing a client’s gaze will keep them from feeling ignored and likely keep them from leaving. “Smile” with your
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Grow Your Brand and Your Business in 10 Seconds

Grow Your Brand and Your Business in 10 Seconds We have all been standing or sitting next to someone who looks at you and says: “What do you do?” or “What business are you in?” or “Not seen you at this event before; what made you come?” This is an invitation to make a great impression. This person may need exactly what you’re in business for, or they may know someone who does. Their question gives you two choices, you can: Say something obvious, that produces an “Oh, thanks.” Or you can say something that makes them sit up and
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Self-Managers Wanted: Here’s What to Look For

Self-Managers Wanted: Here’s What to Look For The “perfect” employee isn’t one who does whatever you say, but someone who knows what to do without having to be told. It’s someone who performs the job without constant prodding, someone who can manage himself or herself with a minimum of interference from you. Here’s what to look for in a self-managing employee:  Goals. Look for people who set their own objectives and push themselves to achieve them. Instead of accomplishing the bare minimum, they stretch to do a little bit more, or a little bit better, without anyone else telling them
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Suffering from a Messy Workspace? Five Benefits of Being Organized to Boost Your Potential

Declutter Your Messy Workspace to Save Time & Money! Being surrounded by clutter is unpleasing. Maneuvering around your office is like participating in an obstacle course, you have business updates tucked into the contact book, and you can’t locate the flyers you swear you already printed. Let’s face it, being unorganized puts a damper on more than just your workspace appearance. It affects your time, you mood, and your wallet. Being exhausted after a long day is understandable, but taking the time to straighten things out will benefit you more than crashing on the coach with a frozen dinner to watch the premiere of
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Keep Your Focus on What You Do Best

Focus on Your Strengths! Practice management is one of the hardest parts of running a small business. All of the infrastructural elements that large corporations have to manage, such as data security, finance, customer service, and legal documentation, are still on your to-do list. But managing all of those elements without the large employment force that big businesses can bring to the table is a challenge that seems unending. If you started an accounting practice because you wanted to focus on certain types of accounting services, you can still do precisely that. Here’s how: Make a list of what requires
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5 Pointers to Grow Your Practice by Networking Effectively

Networking Effectively To Grow Your Business You grow your client base in a lot of ways; networking is one of the most common and least expensive. But as with the elevator pitch, which we discussed in an earlier blog, there is the effective way and the way most people do it. Effective networking brings in new business for a number of reasons; one of them is because when you network effectively you stand out from the crowd, and that is always good in any crowded marketplace. The other is because you actually do it well, you are welcomed and seen as a valuable source
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