Matthew Devaney

7 tips to help you run a more calm accounting firm in 2024 🧠 1. Root out urgency A calm firm runs according to a plan, minimizing surprises that make you deviate from the plan. Consider what's creating urgency and taking you away from the plan. This may look like: - Clients expect urgent work at the drop of a hat - A project is overdue & now has to be fast-tracked - Training clients to expect an immediate response - Clients come to you instead of your team Make a list of recent fires & start from there. 2. Identify your firefighters Let's do everything we can to avoid accounting emergencies, but when something slips through the cracks send it to the right person. Some folks hate urgency, others love it! Build a team that's a mix of doers that want to stick with the program, and firefighters that enjoy going the extra mile when duty calls. 3. Eradicate pain signaling Stop glorifying overwork, and root it out if you see your team doing it. This all starts with you. Set the example. Get home for dinner, and be visible in your praise of team members for doing the same. 4. Acknowledge capacity constraints Finding & training a new employee is a lot of work. Implementing a new system is a lot of work. If you wait until you hit capacity to do something about your capacity, it's already too late. 5. Diversify fulfillment Don't become fully reliant upon traditional hiring to get the work done. Augment with outsourced groups, and offshore hiring. Your firm should never be one person away from disaster, yourself included. 6. Delegate your email Stop burning half the day on email because you're too prideful to get help. Your business operates out of your email inbox. Like everything else in your firm, it shouldn't be exempt from delegation. 7. Do what needs to be done The reality is you probably already know what needs to be done... you just haven't done it yet. Life gets easier when you embrace doing the hard things.