Keep Your Focus on What You Do Best

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 licensed expertise and what
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Increase the Benefits of Delegating Duties

How to delegate tasks is an important issue, but which tasks to delegate—and why—are equally good questions. Take delegation to a higher level with this advice: Focus on growth. Use delegation as a strategy for employee development. Assign tasks that stretch your people, not just busywork that’s so “safe” nobody could screw it up. Think big: Delegate tasks that will have an impact on your employees—and your organization.  Analyze your responsibilities. When deciding what to do yourself, consider the value of your own time. Would you authorize paying somebody at your salary level to change the toner cartridge? That doesn’t
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Build a Superstar Team!

The Perfect Team You’re excited about your business! You have great ideas for growing your firm and engaging your clients. You are motivated to find new ways to market your services, and what you need is a dream team of employees who not only understand your goals, but who are equally enthusiastic about your vision of the future. Here is a quick guide to building your own superstar team! Your Enthusiasm Informs Theirs When you hire new employees, consider your vision, and include your employees in your plan for the future of the company. Hire people who are enthusiastic about
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Importance of a Positive Attitude

Surrounded by negative people in your office? Feeling like you might be the negative one? Here are three reasons why it is important to have a positive attitude and how you get there if you find yourself or your employees always looking at the darker side of things.  Creates Healthy Office Culture: A positive attitude lends itself to a healthy office culture. People will enjoy coming to work each morning and look forward to starting their work day in a positive atmosphere. This will also lend itself to more employees helping each other out and being there for each other instead of just racing to
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Grow Your Brand and Your Business With a Great LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn is the world’s largest business network. Prospective clients and vendors check out LinkedIn profiles to see who they are preparing to do business with. Clients, especially, want to feel confident in and comfortable with the accountant and trusted advisor they are going to begin working with. Your profile matters, especially if you want it to act as your 24/7/365 sales contact point. Most LinkedIn profiles are like everyone else’s profile, mainly because most people copy them from the others, or because they gear them towards basic facts rather than towards helping to market you and your business, and its
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Ask Questions That Open Job Candidates Up

The purpose of an interview is to discover whether a candidate is qualified for a job. It’s also your best chance to learn about the candidate’s personality and attitude and how well they would fit in with your organization’s culture. Here are some questions that will help you explore these areas: “What are your career goals?” The answer will tell you about the candidate’s level of maturity, planning ability, and focus on achievement. “Tell me about your first job.” You can find out a lot about the candidate’s work ethic by listening to their early job history.  “What do you
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Ask the Right Questions to Find the Right Employees

Hiring people may seem like a gamble, but you can increase your chances of hitting the jackpot by getting to know candidates as thoroughly as possible during the recruitment process. Here are some probing questions to ask:  “Tell me about your best and worst boss.” The answer should give you some insight into how well the candidate deals with authority, rules, and conflict. “Where do you see yourself in one year?” Five- or 10-year goals tend to be vague and theoretical. A look one year into the future can tell you how the employee realistically views his or her prospects
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Make Sure Your Team Understands Your Words

Whether you’re talking to an employee or addressing an important client meeting, the basic rules of communication in the workplace apply. Make sure you’re getting your message across by following these guidelines: Become the other person. What does your listener want to hear? Expect to hear? Need to hear? Anticipate how your audience—whether it’s one person or hundreds—may respond to your message so you can tailor your words appropriately. Be sure to speak their language and avoid accounting jargon.  Know what you want. Don’t describe a problem unless you know what you expect the other person to do about it.
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Listen for Clues to Promotion

Some employees who are ready for promotion may be easy to spot, but others aren’t always so obvious. If you think you may be overlooking some talent that can be developed, look for these clues that a worker is ready for a promotion:  Free time. If an employee has finished all his or her regularly assigned work and has nothing to do, it could be a sign that he or she is ready for more responsibility. Fast response time. Keep track of how quickly the employee finishes assignments and short-notice tasks. If he or she is getting faster, a promotion
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4 Untapped Ways To Celebrate Wins In Your Business

Celebrating wins is as a vast untapped resource with your team members. Here are four tips to catapult you in the right direction. But first, we need to know why celebrating your wins is crucial.  Here’s the thing, successful businesses aren’t successful because of a one-time occurrence. It’s usually because of tiny calculated steps over time.  Companies often miss the opportunities to celebrate the inches they’ve made quarterly or annually.  And like life, it’s essential to acknowledge the small (and big) wins along the way. When you celebrate the small stuff, you add to the perseverance bucket, which is critical
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