How to Create a Scalable Firm

If you’re happy with a small firm or have no intentions of scaling in the near future, you need to know why a scalable firm is good for your business. Creating a firm that can scale means:

1. Easier time branching out into new specialties or markets
2. More agility to take on new clients
3. Easier to sell the firm
4. Less headaches for you, team members, and clients

When you make scalability a top priority for your firm, you’re using technology and processes that allow you to succeed. Plus, if you ever decide that you want to sell the firm, your time spent focusing on scaling will often make the sale faster and easier.

4 Tips for Creating a Scalable Firm

Now that you understand why making a firm scalable is important, it’s time to actually begin the process. A few tips that will go a long way include:

1. Standardize Your Workflow

Firm owners who are hands-on often have all of their processes and workflow in their heads. However, if you go on vacation, take a step back from the firm or become incapacitated for some reason, your firm is going to have a difficult time operating.

Scaling should begin with you standardizing your entire workflow and documenting everything.

You should have standard processes for:

• Onboarding clients
• Communicating with clients
• Offboarding
• Every task you perform

Throughout an entire week, document everything you do. You might even want to screen record, make audio notes and provide written instructions.

The goal is that when anyone steps into a role in the firm, they have standard operating procedures that they can follow.

Bonus: If you ever sell the firm, these standardized procedures will allow for a seamless transition to the new owners.

2. Review and Update Your Technology

When was the last time you reviewed and updated your technology? Client-facing and internal technology need to help everyone work more efficiently and effectively. One study found that 60%+ of large firms use technology to boost employee morale and engagement.

So, it’s evident that you need to focus on:

• Internal technology that allows for easy collaboration and communication.
• Client-facing technology that can automate tasks, such as sending clients reminders to send over important documents or even pay their invoices.

Investing in technology to speed up workflow, reduce errors and improve client experience does come with an upfront cost. However, technology will also save you money in the long term and allow you to automate tasks, freeing up time for your staff to focus on more important tasks.

3. Partner with Other Firms

A recent survey found 54% of firms believe accountants need advisory skills. Advisory services are a growing market, and there’s a good chance that some of your clients would benefit from these additional services if you aren’t providing them already.

For example, let’s say that you want to offer financial planning to your clients, and this is a service you’re sure they’ll need.

You can partner with a reputable firm that will offer these services to your clients, and you won’t take on the burden of:

• Hiring new people
• Managing larger teams

Instead, your partner will deal with the logistics. Meanwhile, you’ve created a new source of revenue for your firm.

4. Delegate Tasks

In the initial stages of your firm’s existence, it’s not uncommon for owners to take on multiple roles to help the firm run. However, if you’ve reached this tip, you already have your standardized operating procedures in place.

Now, one of the hardest things to do for scaling is to delegate.

You need to learn how to let go and allow others to perform critical tasks. When you delegate tasks, you’re freeing up time for you to focus on core tasks that can help your firm grow. Delegating can be difficult for hands-on owners, but you’ll want to keep in mind that you can still perform tasks that you love.

But you can also reduce your workload by offloading some tasks to your team.

Start slow, delegate tasks, and monitor team progress. Eventually, you’ll find that you have time to scale your firm because you’re not doing everything.

Scaling is something that should be on every firm owner’s mind. When you have a scaling-centric firm, you’ll adapt to client needs and industry demands faster and better meet their needs now and in the future.

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John Graziano, CPA, PFS, CFP® is president of and FFP Wealth Management, a financial planning and management firm. He also actively mentors more than 80 CPA firms across the country.