Your Firm Should Have a “Honey Do” List

Once the seasonal decorations come down and the mailman requires a power-lifting belt to deliver your monthly credit card statements, the small window between now and tax season is probably a good time to take a holistic view of your practice to see what needs to be done post 4-15.

Unlike my already assigned chores of re-grouting the upstairs bathroom and finding a competent electrician to rewire the stove hood, yours should be far more practice-centric and have a checklist to determine if anything occurred during the year that would have an impact on your strategic goals.

And that list probably should start with your staff.

If you’re a multi-owner firm ask yourself are any of the equity shareholders planning to slow down over the next few years? If so, that requires looking either internally on your bench or externally in order to help fill the partner-level workload. Any partner transition could also signal that a change may be necessary to your current succession plan. How about any of your critical staff? Especially those with heavy client contact. That can be anyone from the receptionist to a mid-level manager.

And speaking of clients, during the year did you lose a large client or conversely, add any?

Are you thinking about starting another client service line or in fact dropping one that may be unprofitable? What about locations?

Are you thinking of expanding to another location or maybe even establishing a footprint in a new market?

Then there’s technology – one of the most overlooked areas in a firm and needless to say one of the most critical. Are your applications and/or equipment up to date?

So, there’s a lot to think about and a rather small window in which to do it before the annual avalanche of 1040s begin piling up.

But once the smoke clears, it’s important to remember there’s still 8-plus months left in the year.