This version of Generational Viewpoints options two professionals from Andrea & Orendorff, a 35-person agency based mostly in Kenosha, Wisconsin. We requested child boomer companion Kathy Andrea, born in 1955, and millennial companion Ryan Goerres, born in 1988, to share their views on the next query:
“How do you realign your consumer base to arrange for succession?”
Andrea’s child boomer viewpoint
My former companion and I, additionally a lady and just one yr older, began planning for our retirements and our agency’s succession of management virtually six years in the past. Our plans have actually come to fruition over the previous yr. This transition is an adjustment for us and for our crew, and it impacts our purchasers, too. The required realignment of our consumer base may have adopted considered one of two potential paths. The primary path was a buyout or merger with one other agency. The second path was considered one of inside management promotion. Growing our inside management was a greater match with our agency’s tradition and for our purchasers, so we selected to comply with that path.
During the last 40 years, our agency has maintained two service segments. The primary was a for-profit section that supplied enterprise and particular person tax, accounting and enterprise consulting providers. This section was one-fifth of our $3.2 million (2020) in income. Our agency’s specialty is offering nonprofit and authorities providers. We have now a standing contract in place with county authorities that makes up $2 million of our income and employs almost 60% of our employees.
Our agency’s method to consumer service has at all times been collaborative. We had been lucky to discover a chief to fill my former companion’s position, which allowed her to retire on the finish of 2020. My new companion has been with us for six years now and has grown as a frontrunner and introduced new life to our inside succession planning. Although I’ve labored with a few of my purchasers for 35 years, they’ve warmly welcomed our new management crew. I credit score this clean shift to the skills of my successors and the boldness I’ve in them.
Among the best selections we made throughout this course of was the dramatic change to our consumer base. My former companion did particular person taxes, however neither of us had a lot small-business experience. We relied on high-level employees to handle that section of the agency. After strategic planning and far deliberation, we determined to concentrate on the specialization we all know finest and offered the for-profit, tax-focused section of our agency. We labored carefully with the client agency by coordinating communications and advertising and marketing with our purchasers. A serious key to our success was that my former companion, who loved doing particular person taxes, moved to the brand new agency. A lot of our purchasers interpreted this transfer as proof that we had rigorously chosen an excellent place for them to land. We efficiently transitioned 75% of those purchasers to the brand new agency for this tax season. For the surviving portion of A&O centered on nonprofit and authorities providers, we’ve got already made up for the income we transitioned in only one yr’s time. We haven’t missed a beat.
Goerres’ millennial viewpoint
Whereas pondering the reply to this query, I thought-about my expertise over the previous six years. Throughout this time, I’ve labored carefully with A&O’s two long-time companions as we ready for his or her retirement and transition of their purchasers to our agency’s subsequent technology of leaders. Succession planning might be tense. At its core, this course of presents a substantial amount of change that may be tough for the agency in addition to our purchasers. Nevertheless, with correct planning and cautious administration, succession presents a tremendous alternative to make sure purchasers are transitioned to a brand new technology of agency leaders that align with the agency’s id and imaginative and prescient for the long run.
At A&O, realigning our consumer base started with a day-long strategic planning assembly. Key members of the agency got here collectively to debate many alternative points of the agency, together with the areas we apply in and the purchasers we serve. Popping out of this assembly, we had a a lot clearer image of who we’re as a agency and our imaginative and prescient for the long run. However the strategic planning assembly was just one step of many in a protracted course of that continues at present. Over the subsequent a number of months, we analyzed numerous areas of our agency, together with the purchasers that make up these areas, and in contrast them to our strategic plan. Some powerful questions arose throughout this course of. We felt the tax providers now not match properly with our agency’s id and imaginative and prescient for the long run. The tough query to reply was, “What will we do with this space and the entire purchasers that make it up?” Additionally, there have been purchasers in areas that we felt now not match our agency. What would we do with these purchasers?
In answering these questions, we made some selections that considerably affected our consumer base and succession plan. Since our tax division now not aligned with our course as a agency, we determined to promote this space to a different agency, leading to a lot happier companions. Not needing to plan for this space, the newer companions can now concentrate on the areas and purchasers we’re enthusiastic about that additionally align with our imaginative and prescient. Moreover, we knew the tax purchasers could be higher served by a agency that specialised of their wants.
I see the realigning of our consumer base as a steady course of that we’ll concentrate on and fine-tune often. As we convey new management and employees alongside and adapt to fixed adjustments within the accounting business, there’ll at all times be a must revisit and replace our plans and consumer base. Doing so was a important success think about companion succession planning and transition, and each agency that’s retiring companions ought to rigorously undertake this evaluation and planning.
This column is facilitated and edited by Sarah Land, the millennial advertising and marketing and program coordinator, and Jennifer Wilson, the newborn boomer co-founder and companion, of ConvergenceCoaching LLC, a management and administration consulting and training agency that helps leaders obtain success. To have your agency’s generational viewpoints thought-about for a future Accounting Tomorrow column, e-mail them at sarah@convergencecoaching.com.