Golden Practices Blog

BlawgWorld 2007 E-Book Just Released!

And Golden Practices is pretty darn excited to be part of it! Download BlawgWorld 2007 (PDF) free.

Technolawyer invited bloggers whom they defined as authors of the "77 most influential blawgs" to hand-select an essay each for this year's issue. The purpose is to help busy practitioners quickly skim to find which blogs are likely to be of greatest interest to them.

This picture from BlawgWorld 2007's launch party features two great blogger-friends I've had the pleasure of meeting personally (unrelated to this event): Adriana Linares of I Heart Tech and Allison Shields of Legal Ease Blog.

Most of the blogs are featured within are those I read religiously although there are a handful that are brand new to me and that I'm happy to discover. I hope you'll take time to discover them, too!

As an aside, the ebook is super easy to navigate as its creators boast readers are never more than 3-clicks from what they seek. It's a well-designed approach to e-books and if you are thinking of developing one, this is a model you'll want to check out.

On Trust

In a comment to a post on the VeraSage blog about micromanaging behaviors, Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan pretty much sums up firm trust issues:

So, the basic premise is that the firm must build trust with clients. And I believe it's very hard to trust a group of people who fail to trust each other.

I don't trust my people because they're not trustworthy, but I ask my clients to trust us and give us money. This is a pretty pervert perspective.

What do you think?

Oh, and the post he commented on, Why Don't CPA Firm Leaders Trust Their People? is worth the read!

How to NOT Get Your Press Release Picked Up

Readers of this blog know I'm not a fan of jargon in marketing materials (or anywhere, for that matter) as evidenced in my posts such as Fluff = Annoying Marketing and Please Don't Put This on Your Website.

This explains why I really liked "Eight Telltale Signs That Your Press Release is Bullshit" by Scott Baradell on Marketing Profs Daily Fix.

Read the post because Scott, a reporter and PR consultant, suggests how to help keep your press releases out of the round file through preventing these 8 mistakes:

1. Vague claims.
2. Industry jargon abuse.
3. Business nonsense talk.
4. Silly superlatives.
5. Bait and switch.
6. Tortured topicality.
7. Off-brand wire distribution.
8. Clumsy e-mail distribution.

Check it out!

Nominated for Blogger's Choice Awards

Just discovered that this blog was nominated (and not by me) for Blogger's Choice Awards in three categories: Best Business Blog, Best Marketing Blog and Best Blog Design (huh?? there are amazing looking blogs out there...this isn't one of them).

Okay, so I'm the only one who voted for me as of now, but what the heck.

If you like what you read here and you want to vote, I'd sure be honored by your support.

So, whadda they say, "vote early and vote often."

You can also nominate other blogs, so make someone's day!

Male/Female Partner Ratios

Interesting results in the new Accountancy Age Top 50 firm listing (UK):

On average women make up only 9.7% of partners within a firm and the number of female qualifieds has dropped year on year by two percentage points.

Interesting facts and perhaps the latter is a conseqence of the former? Or, perhaps not, suggests the only female managing partner in the Top 50, Linda Richardson of Morley and Scott:

I think it’s a matter of choice, when it comes down to it. It isn’t necessarily a matter of discrimination against a woman, it’s more of a choice that a woman makes in her life.

While UK average women ownership is roughly 9.7%, Mercer & Hole shows the highest woman-owned ratio at 24%. Kudos, then, to Mercer & Hole for being the sort of place where women WANT to stay on and become partners!

In the US, according to a 2006 study that included some 2600 participants, "Women now account for 19% of all firm partners, up from 12% a decade ago." The study credited quality of life initiatives as being responsible for this increase.

The study is known as 'A Decade of Changes in the Accounting Profession: Workforce Trends and Human Capital Practices' and was conducted under the aegis of the AICPA's Work/Life and Women's Initiatives Executive Committee.

This accounting/women study was referenced in comparison to the legal profession when an article hit the front page of the NY Times in March 2006 that caused a huge stir: "Up The Down Staircase: Why Do So Few Women Reach the Top of Big Law Firms?" 

Phyllis Weiss Haserot, of Practice Development Counsel, wrote "Up the Up Staircase: Follow the Lead of CPA Firms." She notes that the AICPA study shows: "A gender gap in the desire for partnership exists; 65% of male and 41% of female senior managers expressed a desired for partnership." This certainly corroborates the comments of Linda Richardson--but there's still a big gap between 9.7-19% who are partners and the 40% that aspire to be...

Phyllis also cites the study in that "Women are choosing smaller firms where their advancement is more pronounced" which makes sense.

Similarly, the Accountancy Age study comments stated that the smaller firms had significantly bolstered ethic minority partners ratios which the Big 4 dragged down. That the 10 largest firms only show only an 11.8% female partner ratio is definitely disappointing.

Getting to the heart of the matter, back in 2004, my friend Wendy Werner wrote an article "Where Have the Women Attorneys Gone." Wendy, like Phyllis in her article, is much more interested in fixing the disparity than in pointing it out. Both articles are very constructive.

I have to say that the really depressing news was in Wendy's article where she referenced:

The ABA Commission on Women also found that men earn twenty percent higher salaries than women, and are twice as likely to obtain a partnership than women with similar qualifications.

Hmmmm. Well, money isn't everything. Nowadays, time (as in non-working time) is a currency.

I say this is where smaller firms will win out. Smaller firms are simply more flexible. And this is a huge advantage for them that will play out in the next decade or so as we see talent flocking to the most flexible organizations. It's not just a generational thing, or a gender thing. It's what all of us want.

And it's what many people need as we tend to aging parents and raise children in a more dangerous society than the one in which we were raised. And we can do it so easily now with technology.

Traveling Light

I'm not one of those extreme overpackers or anything, but I'm heading off to a meeting in Kuala Lumpur in about a week and I thought I'd try out the experience of packing REALLY light.

I want to know if it's overrated or if I'm happier taking, say, 7 pair of shoes for a 4-day trip...

It's slightly off-topic for my blog and all, but what the heck, it IS vacation season...and useful info for any business traveler.

Hope you enjoy my Top 5 Travel Tip Resources:

One Bag: http://www.onebag.com/
Doug Dyment has packing lists and info like crazy about how to travel light, things to be aware of, and where to find some of the supplies he recommends. This site intrigued me for a couple hours! It is rated by PC magazine as a Top 100 Can't Live Without site.

Seat Guru: http://www.seatguru.com/
Found through Doug's site above, this site shows you what seats to pick and which to avoid--and why--plane by plane, for most airlines. It tells you where you'll have more/less legroom, where you might be disturbed by galley or lavatory noise, and where you can find seats with power outlets (and which type). A really great feature is the mobile device friendly page that loads fast so you can check when standing at the ticket counter as you're switching to a new flight.

Country Codes for international calling: http://www.countrycodes.com/

OneSuite: http://www.onesuite.com
This is a telephone access (global) plan that I have used for at least 5 years. Very reliable and very inexpensive. US to Malaysia, for instance, is 3.5 cents/minute. I just ran a 6-month project with a client in the UK with frequent, long calls and I spent less than $25 on calls over the entire 6 months.

IAN's Shoelace site: http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/knots.htm
Okay, you're thinking that this has little to do with travel. But if you're planning to do lots of walking, I suggest it is worthwhile. Did you know there is probably a better way to tie your shoes? If your laces untie often, check this out.

Proposal Success Rate

Q. How do we know if our firm's success (win) rate with proposals is at, above, or below average? For that matter, what is the industry average for CPA firms?

A. My answer will apply philosophically to law as much as to accounting. As to a CPA industry average proposal success rate, a number like this isn't meaningful as it never compares apples to apples. There are just too many variables!

Consider different vertical markets. NFPs or governments almost always require formal proposals with most going out to bid at regular intervals. But businesses, especially the highly-desirable closely-held business market, will often close a deal over lunch or golf game and the "proposal," if it exists at all, might be a formality that accompanies the engagement letter.

If a comparison were made, I might suggest comparing a vertical market (construction, NFP, etc) to other firm's success ratios in those markets. But, I still don't think it will be very meaningful without knowing things for the compared proposals such as:

• Was the firm the incumbent?
• Was a personal relationship in existence?
• Did personal contact take place before answering an RFP?
• If so, how much contact? And what was the quality of that contact (i.e. was it private, one-on-one? In person? By telephone? At a widely attended pre-bid conference? etc)?
• How focused was the proposal on the prospect (customer-centric) versus the firm?
• Did the proposing firm demonstrate they really understood the prospect's situation and needs?
• Did the proposing firm meet the requirements of the RFP and have the experience to truly qualify for the work?
• Was the firm already widely known as dominate service provider to that industry?
• Was it a newly entered vertical market?
• Was the proposal professional-looking, user friendly and free from typos and other signs of negligence in preparation?
• Did the person presenting the proposal do a great job of demonstrating competence and trustworthiness? (or leave some seeds of doubt...?)

Any or all of these things will weigh significantly in the outcome and that is why I don't think a CPA (or law) industry comparison is worthwhile.

The best benchmark is to measure the firm against itself now and later. In the meantime, study existing processes to determine where your firm could use some improvement in the above areas!

"Webinars are a bitch." But Worth It.

On ClickZ Experts "Advice and opinions. By and for marketers" is an article by Karen Gedney on webinars.

Karen quotes a marketer friend who says, "Those Webinars are a bitch," and expounds on the enormous work involved, but concludes,

"Webinars are the price of doing business these days. They're super-popular with our clients. And I have to admit, they're kind of fun to produce in a kind of horrifying way!"

We're always telling firms that relevance of message is key. "Salesy" provision of information is a HUGE turnoff to every audience anymore. The philosophy now applies to websites, print materials, blogs, you name it.

Karen's article supports this. A source, Amy Bills, recommends approaches to attract webinar attendees:

The Right Topic and Message Attract the Right Audience

"More likely than not, the audience for a lead-generation Webinar is pretty savvy. If your event is just a demo of your product, they're probably not going to want to spend much time with you," says Bills.

"A tenet we follow is, 'Teach, don't sell.' Develop a topic, and a message around it, that really speaks to your prospect's pain points -- the things that are making their jobs difficult," she says. "If you have something to teach them, they're more likely to come. And while you're teaching, you establish your company as a thought leader in your space, which makes later sales engagements easier.

"This approach is important because we're always concerned not only with raw numbers but [also] with quality. If you get 1,000 registrants but none are good prospects, it's not a very successful lead-generation Webinar," says Bills. "But if you drive prospects who are demonstrably good prospects for your sales team (and eventually convert to deals) by giving them information that solves their day-to-day business problems, that's real success. So when we measure whether something worked, we're usually looking at the quality of the leads as well as quantity."

The article also offers great post-event advice:

Post-Webinar: Leave No Leads Behind

"After the live Webinar, you have a great opportunity to engage with prospects," says Bills. "Even those prospects who didn't attend the event needn't be left on the table. You have an opportunity to keep the conversation going with them.

"Bulldog recommends a follow-up communication 24 to 48 hours after the live event, dynamically generated based on whether or not someone attended," she continues. "That timeframe is critical: The likelihood of a prospect converting to a sale drops dramatically the longer you wait to contact them. Attendees can receive a 'thanks for attending' e-mail that reiterates the key messages from the live event and contains a sales-oriented call to an action such as signing up for a demo.

"Those who couldn't attend can receive a 'sorry we missed you' e-mail that gives them access to an archive of the live event, so they can catch up on what they missed and contains a call to action."

While you're checking out Gedney's article in its entirety, by sure to bookmark ClickZ Experts for other great information on marketing. It is a wealth of information.