Golden Practices Blog

Today I Remember a Dear Friend

Today, Nov 16, marks one year from when a remarkable man, Paul O'Byrne, closed his human eyes for the final time. My brilliant friend--a fellow senior fellow of VeraSage Institute--fought a noble battle against a slightly more stubborn cancer that was determined to grow.

Paul changed the world. For me, anyway, and for a lot of other Chartered Accountants and CPAs. Paul O and his partner, Paul Kennedy (their firm O'Byrne & Kennedy in Goffs Oak) were among Ron Baker's earliest victims converts subscribing, quickly, to pricing in advance rather than billing after the fact. A few years later, they even trashed their timesheets.

But that's not how Paul changed the world. Paul was a gifted counselor and something of (in his words!) a "speaking whore." In this role, he inspired a lot of people in many countries. 

If you have just a few minutes, I encourage you to visit the final entry of his blog, posted by his children, which is the transcription of his eulogies. You can get just a little taste of Paul's charming wit and dedication to his family, friends, community and clients

Please give blood regularly.

And, please, in honor of Paul, be sure to carpe your diems!

Think Your Clients Use Your Firm's Website?

If you think your website exists primarily for clients, think again.

A lot of firms think about investing in pricey features that would be in a client-only portion of the website. Did you know that only about 1% of clients return to a firm’s site after hiring them? And when they do, it’s usually to find an address or phone number.

Firms think about adding a payment feature or a document storage tool where clients can get their electronic documents without bothering the firm to send copies. Yikes, how firm-centric are these ideas??

Firms also talk about putting valuable content and tools behind this client-only wall. This is exactly opposite of what your content strategy should be. Put your content and tools "out front" where people can see how brilliant and generous you are.

And recognize other audiences are using your site a lot more than clients ever will.

Clients expect you to personally impart any and all important information to them. Everyone else wants to be able to find it without, or before, having to interact with you.

Most CPA firm website visitors are job seekers; second are prospective clients or referral sources—particularly looking at biographies. Least visited are firms’ services pages.

Build your site features and content according to these realities and you'll get a lot more out of your site.