With just a few months left in 2022, it is time to reflect on the year and how it has panned out for you. Unfortunately, many firm owners forget that they must learn to let things go throughout the year.
Business is a series of ups and downs.
In fact, now is the perfect time to begin letting go of things that you have been holding onto that do not serve you. I recommend that you start letting go of the following:
1. Attachment to an Outcome and Expectations
Firm owners often have a commitment to their firms and the outcome or expectations that happen throughout the year. For example, it is easy to get attached to a prospect that you know you can help.
However, when the expectations that you have or the outcome you expect do not materialize, it is easy to let it:
- Ruin your day
- Ruin your week
- Marinate for months
Instead of hanging onto this attachment and questioning what went amiss, it is time to let it go. See what you can learn from the situation and move on. When one door closes, another will eventually open.
You might have lost out on a prospective client, but perhaps a new client will come along and be a much better fit for your firm. Now you have time to commit to their project.
2. Unresponsive/Difficult Clients
Accounting firms have a low churn rate, with less than 6% of their client base being new each year. But this does not mean you should hang onto those difficult clients.
If you have a client that fits into the description below, it may be time to let them go:
- Client is unresponsive
- Client has unrealistic expectations
- Client doesn’t provide information you request timely
- Client makes it difficult to do your job well
- Client doesn’t value you and your services
- Client treats your team members disrespectfully
Most clients are fantastic, but if a client is unresponsive or makes it difficult to do your job and you have talked to them about it before, it may be time to let the client go before the end of the year.
3. Seeking People’s Approval – You’re the Advisor
Advisors have a difficult job, because sometimes you have to have hard conversations with people. This means being brutally honest with them, even when it is sharing information they may not want to hear. If you are too focused on seeking approval from clients as their advisor, you cannot help them to the best of your ability.
Further, your need for approval can hold you back in several ways. Many people will fall into one of two spectrums when seeking approval:
- You become an overachiever and put so much time and effort into making your client happy that it becomes unprofitable and frustrating.
- Your performance suffers because you are too worried that your client will be unhappy with your decisions, causing you to either second guess yourself or procrastinate.
You need to find self-acceptance, stop seeking validation and realize you are the advisor. People would not hire you if they did not trust your expertise.
4. Taking on Other People’s Problems
You are an advisor — not a babysitter. All too often, firms take on their client’s problems and this approach does not improve their business. Remember, it is on the client if:
- They don’t provide information on time
- They don’t follow your advice
- They make poor decisions and/or do not follow through
Make a commitment to help your clients to the best of your ability, but never take on their problems.
5. Clients that Don’t Respect Boundaries or Your Expertise
Clients will make mistakes. You must find a balance between a client who makes a mistake and one who simply won’t learn from their mistakes.
If a client consistently makes the same mistakes even after you have educated them on it, this is a red flag and a sign it may be time to let them go.
Further, If a client doesn’t respect your boundaries, it may be time to let the client go.
A few of the ways that boundaries may not be respected are:
- Demanding too much of your time
- Expecting immediate responses
- Asking for responses after work hours
- Questioning your expertise constantly
6. Overreacting to Client Decisions
Firms need to make difficult decisions. Clients may react negatively to your decisions, and it may be difficult not to overreact to them. You want to stop overreacting to the decisions of your clients.
For example, you may decide to raise your prices, and then one of your 100 clients complains and leaves. Overreacting would be lowering prices for everyone immediately.
When one client isn’t okay with a price change, 99 other clients may be okay with it. Let that one client’s decision be. At the end of the day, you are running a business—not trying to win a popularity contest.
Make a commitment to let go of overreactions.
7. Letting Your Identity Get Caught up in Your Business
Finally, and this is one of the most critical points: it’s too easy to make your business your identity. For example, you may:
- Feel amazing when business is going well
- Feel horrible when business is not going as well
You need to be both a realist and an optimist at the same time. The first role of a leader is to address reality as it is. The realist in you needs to realize life has seasons and to take the good and the bad equally. Leaders must also be optimists and remain optimistic about the future. People do not follow leaders who are continually pessimistic.
If you can let go of these seven things before the end of the year, you will set yourself and your firm up for a fantastic 2023.
Christopher Hayden, CPA, CMA, CGMA is the managing partner of Hayden Nelson & Yoder, a CPA firm based in Pennsylvania. You can learn more about him and/or the firm on their website HERE.
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