How are you going to make your firm better in 2015?

As you may have surmised by the cynicism in my last column, I’m not a great believer in New Year’s Resolutions – I think for most people they have the staying power of a campaign promise.

If my health club serves as any barometer of said resolutions, more than 500 people came in for a workout on January 2 – many I’m guessing for the first time since the Reagan administration. Just five days later that number had dipped to less than half.

No, I prefer what I call “New Year’s Decisions.” A decision, at least by inference, carries a somewhat more permanent intention. So with that lesson in semantics, have you “decided” on how to make your firm better in 2015?

Maybe the first thing to do – and with 1040 season encroaching I recommend it be done quickly – is to compile a quasi-checklist of where you think the practice can improve. And remember to get everyone’s input as an owner may not necessarily have the same perception as a mid-level staffer on a firm’s shortcomings.

And here’s another suggestion, distill it down to goals that are realistic to achieve.

Perhaps your current technology is one step above a pocket calculator and the columns of paper that litter the office have drawn warnings from the local fire marshal. Maybe it’s time to consider wading gradually into a paperless environment.

Thinking of offering another client service? While it’s critical to differentiate your practice from the 85,000 or so CPA firms in the U.S., don’t make a spur of the moment decision to offer, say, cost segregation, without doing a bit of homework first on what that entails or to find someone in the firm as the dedicated “champion” of the initiative. Too many firms list services on their respective websites that don’t have a partner in charge.

You want to improve your firm – not overpromise and under-deliver to your clients.

How strong is your “bench” and are there some potential partners in waiting? If so, then determine the likely candidates for eventual equity and succession and show them how to get there. If you wait too long to pull the trigger, then those prime candidates will likely go to another more proactive firm that isn’t quite so hesitant.

And I could go on – but the reality is that many of you probably are acutely aware of what and where your firm can improve.

Resolutions may sound good, but remember, “decision” is an action noun.