March 2003a- Each month this page will be updated with new tips and ideas and the previous content archived. As time goes by our archives will grow. These will always be accessible, and always without charge. Enjoy.

Welcome to the free tips page for March 2003

To view the agenda click on this image and scroll down.

Firstly, for those visitors who are members of CPAsNet, and who are going to the 10th Annual Meeting taking place in Charleston, South Carolina, USA in June this year, I'll be seeing you there on Saturday June 7th. I will be the guest speaker for the day, delivering our 'Quantum Leap' Marketing seminar for the first time in the United States. There will be a lot to cover as we talk about getting the most out of your practice tailored for the meeting to focus on how to make your firm an attractive acquisition target when the time is right for you to exit. I look forward to meeting you there.

This month I want to discuss the 80/20 rule and how it affects your practice...

It's a well known phenomena that 80 percent of our problems come from 20 percent of our clients. Also, 80 percent of our profits comes from (a different) 20 percent of our clients. Twenty percent of our effort produces 80 percent of the results, and 20 percent of our people produce 80 percent of the value we create with clients.

We could take the analysis to the 'nth' degree and the results would be astonishing. For example, 20% of the assignments we work on produce 80% of the time write-offs we experience. Also, 20% of our clients produce 80% of the referrals we receive each year and 20% of our clients will account for 80% of our WIP at any point in time.

As for our receivables, again, generally 20% of our clients will account for 80% of the $ value tied up.

When we do the math and the analysis, it might not quite work out to be exactly an 80/20 relationship, for example, 73% of our WIP might be tied up in 16% of our clients, giving a 73/16 relationship, but in all of these cases, it is often the case that the relationship gravitates towards 80/20.

Yet we tend to treat most clients equally, most of our staff equally, most of our receivables equally and pay equal attention to all the WIP building up.

This is somewhat contradictory to conventional thinking, but guess what? All of our clients are NOT equal. A receivable of $30,000 should receive more attention than one of $300, and the staff who are our 'superstars' should receive preferential treatment.

Clients who spend more with us in fees should be treated better than the small, technically-not-demanding, professionally-not-enjoyable, $500 or $600 fee clients.

It is the responsibility of yours, as a Partner in a professional firm, to get the maximum return on your time and other resources employed within the practice, yet most of us would readily admit that we do not apply 80/20 thinking to our day-to-day work.

But the benefits of doing so are so good as to be irresistible once the full potential of 80/20 thinking is discovered.

For example, how would you like to work just one day per week and still achieve 80% of what you presently do in five days?

What if you adopted an 80/20 modus operandi all the time, five days per week? How much more do you think you could achieve?

You see, it is often the case that the final 20% of any given project is where the true value is to the client. THAT's what they'll pay handsomely for, the results.

You don't have to be involved 100% of the time in 100% of the cases your firm handles, but in 100% of the cases, the 20% involvement that you do participate in is where 80% of the value to the client lies.

Delegate 80% of what you do to others, handle 20% yourself, achieve 80% of the results in one fifth of the time you would usually spend and you'll soon see that the potential for growing your firm and the rewards that you can generate are exponentially related to the time you dedicate to them.

It might sound a little too good to be true right now, but in our consulting work with CA and CPA firms across North America, the evidence is undeniable.

By re-engineering your firm and your approach to how you organize yourself and what tasks you select to handle and those you delegate are critical to your financial success. Not only that, but in firms where Partners operate with a higher degree of delegation, their staff are far more satisfied with the professional work they handle, the amount of client contact they enjoy and the rapid learning environment that is created by the 80/20 philosophy.

It means that recruiting costs are reduced as people (the RIGHT people) stay longer and work harder, learning more and becoming even more valuable to you, the firm, AND your clients.

We have helped several practitioners to harness the power of 80/20 thinking, and the results have been nothing short of miraculous.

If you would like to discuss how we can help YOU benefit from 80/20 Practice Management, please, call us today at 905-607-3673.

Towards Awesome Client Service - Module Two. The Success Story Continues...

After the success of Module One, we look forward to continuing the journey towards awesome client service with our subscribers, old and new, with the launch of Module two. It's packed full with new ideas and approaches to develop closer working relationships with your clients, and a better yield on your investment in your staff and yourself. The price is held at the introductory rate of $249.95 per module (US funds) so join us now, and if you haven't yet signed up for Module One, you can still do so at the introductory rate.

Find out more at: www.awesomeclientservice.com/details.htm

For those interested in our "Towards Awesome Client Service" program, please click on the logo here:
For those who need a little help in marketing their firm, please feel free to call me direct at:	905-607-3673
If you're ready to get a web site for your firm, go to our web site services page by clicking on the screen shot here:
Or if you simply want to get some great ideas on how to cost effectively market your firm, then check out our eBooks below.

Check out our eBooks:

Our full range of e-books is now available for immediate download. All are now available as "PDF" files AND eBook files - the choice is yours, or download both versions (no extra cost) to see which format you prefer!

Including:

For more details, see our products page

So, that's all for now, if you need more, sign up for our free e-newsletter, LEDGER, on our newsletter sign-up page, or look at our best-selling manual LOW COST HIGH IMPACT WAYS TO WIN NEW CLIENTS.

Thanks for visiting.
Have a great month.
Until next time.

More free tips to come as we next update our site in April 2003.