Greg's Right FIT #432

Quick notes to help you grow your business in less time with less effort. . . sometime next week. 

In this issue: 

- Thoughts on Numbers
- Being Human
- Random Stuff

Thoughts on Numbers

• You've heard of the law of large numbers. The bigger the sample, the closer it will be to the mean. There's a law of small numbers to keep in mind too. We think small samples accurately reflect the whole. Especially lived experience. 
• When troubleshooting a problem ask a couple of questions around the numbers to get a sense of size. "How often is this happening?" and "How many people are affected?" 
• Every organization has numbers they observe. When you're looking for new business, you want to know the numbers they look at and who looks at them. It's critical for determining the opportunity, and the project's success.
• Know the median income in the area you live. Knowing the midpoint gives perspective, because your neighborhood doesn't represent all income ranges. The movie in your head, the one you're starring in, is the law of small numbers.

Being Human - Surviving client transitions

This is an article a younger Greg Chambers wrote for an accounting magazine. 

It’s Not You, It’s Me – Surviving Client Transitions

"We've decided to hire another firm." Are there scarier words in a service-driven business? Especially a CPA firm where clients can take years to decide to hire you in the first place. There are multiple issues that impact client retention, but today I want to focus on one. The transitioning of a client between a senior partner and an associate.

From the point of view of the partner, a call like this from a past client, or worse, finding out second-hand that a client you worked with for years is leaving your firm, is maddening. "I mean, if this associate can't take care of that client and can't keep them happy, how can they be trusted with a larger book of my business?" thinks the partner.

From the point of view of the associate, inheriting a partner's accounts is a mixed blessing at best. They may have a working relationship with the client, but if there are issues, the partner handles them. The best relationships are forged in fire, and they never get the chance to play with the flame. The associate doesn't get origination credit and worse, if anything goes wrong with the account, it's all their fault.

From the client's point of view, a call from a partner, or worse, a call from a new associate telling them there's a change in account management re-frames everything. The fees clients pay to CPAs may be a small percentage of overall revenue, but the sensitive nature of the relationship sets off alarm bells and the fight-or-flight mechanism kicks in. Change is a threat.

This playing field encourages partners to hold on to accounts for too long, prevents associates from developing relationships, and is one reason why clients never contemplate change. It's a suboptimal situation. To remedy this, we have three ideas used by growing CPA firms that help partners let go of small accounts to develop larger accounts, ideas that help associates delight and amaze inherited accounts, all while delighting clients and minimizing attrition. The ideas are Perspective Check, Empathic not Telepathic, and Becoming the Future.

(read the rest of the article on my website by clicking here)

Random Stuff

“We're generally overconfident in our opinions and our impressions and judgments." – Daniel Kahneman

It's feeling springy in my neck of the woods. The tulips and lilies are up, trees are blossoming, and grass is greening. I experience this in my usual antihistamine induced brain fog. As an allergy sufferer, the exhange for being symptom free is a little grogginess. Fair trade. I can live with it. 

Due to this better living through chemicals, I will spend more of this spring season outdoors. This year we're going to chop out more grass and make some new flower and vegetable beds.

I have a special tool I use for this. A shovel. My problem is where do I put the cut turf? I have used it in some dead spots over the years, but I'm running out of places to put it. I struggle to keep most of my lawn looking good, but whatever I try to get rid of acts like super grass and proliferates. Guess what? There's a power tool for this.

A bed edger. 

This monster makes an edge 2" deep. And while it cuts, it pulverizes the grass, turning it into mulch. Yep, I'll be giving the yard a fresh line-up. 

There's a lot of work to do before I can go rent the machine, but now that I know such a toy exists I'm ready to tear some stuff up.

I mean, noisy gas power engine, whirling blades, unknown things in the ground, and an overconfident, antihistamine-filled novice operator. What could go wrong?

I got this.