Practice Tip ' Making a Profit

This article reminds me of the old adages, “work on your business, not in”, or the other old favourite, “are you in practice or in business”? To operate as a business, accountants need to become better managers of their own processes. By managing process, practitioners would at a glance be able to understand their businesses, they could evaluate almost instantly what is working and what isn't. They can check if capacity is correctly planned and the pipe-line of fee opportunity is being correctly managed from inception of opportunity, to completion of work, collection of fee, and the creation/maintenance of a happy client.

If a practice creates the right processes, then fee-earners would be able to manage their businesses by exception. Imagine the huge time-savings if you could run a business by simply correcting the small minority of processes that are wrong, instead of consistently checking all the processes that are right. If you establish the right processes, and manage them by exception, all of a sudden a practice begins to "run itself" and substantial amounts of fee-earner time are freed up. What should be done with this time? Fee earners should establish relationships with clients, speak to them, understand their businesses, and help them grow. In other words, do all the things that help a practice generate fee opportunities for itself and which help a practice grow its own business.

If you want to grow your practice, be in control of it first - establish process and manage it by exception. Then you'll have the time for clients!