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It’s
the most wonderful time of the year...
Back to school – I’ve stolen the headline from the Staples
radio ad - you’ve probably heard it, I’m sure.
It’s the time of year when your Co-Op students have gone back
to school, your UFE candidates are gone – cramming for their final
exam, and you’re settling back in to a rhythm after probably taking
some time off yourself.
For many, the summer (after all December year ends are filed) can be
a quiet time of the year.
There are no more pressing deadlines, many clients are off on vacation,
and there could even be times when staff have little to do.
Many firms opt to work ‘summer hours’ – often taking
a half day on Fridays or even the whole day off, as a way to compensate
many for the long hours they put in during March and April earlier in
the year.
However, for other firms, the summer is just as busy as tax season,
because they t in motion earlier in the year with a number of their
better clients, to use the summer as a planning session for their clients’
businesses.
So, many are sitting down with their clients and helping them focus
on what their goals are, and then walking them through a variety of
scenarios of how they might get there.
Others are preparing cash flow forecasts and going to the bank with
the client to raise additional funding for expansion.
Some accounting firms are simply trying to get their clients more proficient
at, for example, Quickbooks.
For practitioners, it is often truly a case of going back to school
themselves, as the provincial Institutes start up their own PD courses
again, my own ‘Partner Bootcamp’ runs again, and many other
training courses become available to the practitioner, not to mention
a number of partner retreats taking place.
So, what are you going to do to invest in your firm?
Yes, this should be seen as an investment – and an investment
that should yield a very healthy return. As David Maister puts it “If
you think education is expensive, try ignorance!”
Could you or your senior staff benefit from public speaking training,
making more of the opportunities to speak at Rotary, give seminars and
so on?
Would one or two of your people benefit from a bootcamp-style partner
preparation course?
What about the selection of PD courses available from your own professional
bodies, or what about upgrading your team’s skills through technology
updates and software training available through any number of sources?
I believe that the best way to prioritize any investment is to ask oneself
‘Where do I get the biggest bang for my buck?’ When you
have answered that, that’s where to start.
But remember – not all training needs to be purchased. There’s
a lot we can all do for our staff that doesn’t cost a dime.
Start by assessing who needs improvement in what areas. You’ll
probably find that from the perspective of putting a file together you
or one of your senior staff could perform that type of training for
your students, technicians and others.
Why pay someone to do that, when you can train your people to work in
precisely the way you’d like them to simply by sitting down with
them and talking them through the process?
And here’s the kicker; bring in your family camcorder and tape
these sessions, then you can accumulate a series of sessions on tape
and produce your very own in-house training DVD to get real leverage
on your investment in the process, as new staff can sit and review this
in the boardroom – or better yet – take it home and watch
it in their own time!
When you start to do your in-house training this way, the investment
of your time quickly starts to see dividends!
© 2003-2011,
Steve McIntyre-Smith. All Rights Reserved. |
