Ringing in 2014 the Right Way!

Here’s hoping you all enjoyed  a wonderful and healthy holiday season.

Closer to home, my local health club must have been monitoring my caloric intake during December as I was greeted on January 2 with a notice that my membership fees would rise. I debated whether that was directed at me personally or simply the first of several cost of living adjustments I would be hit with over 2014.

Happy New Year!

But I digress.

As many of you await the return of your clients’ tax organizers as a prelude to filing season, perhaps this might be a good time to make some New Years’ resolutions – and I’m not referring to going an extra mile or two on the treadmill or having once less glass of wine at happy hour – but rather the ones that will keep your practice moving forward in 2014 and beyond.

So you might want to consider some items on this rather informal checklist:

• Clients. Have you assessed your client list to determine an A, B or C  pecking order - which ones you will hopefully retain for years to come and which ones probably need to go out with the post-holiday Goodwill donations? And why is it that the lowest fee clients are the ones that invariably whine the loudest?
• Partners. This is probably a good time to review your partners’ performance and KPIs – key performance indicators. Do their current books of business align with your governance guidelines (one partner, one vote?) and have they brought any new revenue to the table lately? Are there one or more “high potentials” now on your bench who may be material for equity ownership?
• Succession. Whether you’re a sole practitioner or a multi-partner firm – do you have a formal succession plan in place? How about an informal one? What happens to your firm if for example, you get hit by the proverbial bus? Currently, less than half of multi-owner firms say they have a formal succession plan in place and for firms with 15 or less full time employees, 70 percent do not have such a plan in place.
• Niches. Determine whether you currently offer all the service niches your clients demand, or are there others worth pursuing, either internally or by acquisition? Wealth management for example is a natural segue for a tax-centric firm. What about cost segregation if your have several real estate clients or lit support for law clients?

Just some things to ponder in between Bowl games.

And if you’re like me, it probably would not hurt to go a bit longer on the treadmill either.