Clients are undoubtedly an important part of your business. They pay for the goods or services your company provides, keeping the lights on and the doors open. But behind every satisfied client is a core pillar of any successful business: Your employees.
The equation is simple: employee success = company success. If you treat the people who work for you well, and genuinely care about how they are doing, they will do the same for you and your company.
To thrive, your business will need skilled, motivated employees who find value in their work. More importantly, they need to feel valued as people.
Investing in Your Team is Investing in Your Company
If you invest in your employees, you are directly investing in your own company; with success naturally following for everyone involved. Invest in your future by supporting professional development as a cornerstone of a healthy business practices. This commitment is exactly why I decided to return to school to get the educational credits required to sit for the CPA Exam.
Throughout this process, Randy Shank has modeled exactly what a business owner should be. He demonstrates daily how a CPA should think and act, and how to be a trusted advisor to clients. Modeling the standards you want to see in your business is one of the most effective ways to bring those same qualities out in your employees. As leadership expert John Maxwell wrote in his book, High Road Leadership: Bringing People Together in a World That Divides, “When you value all people, everybody wins.”
The Power of Listening
Another vital way to invest in your employees is to actually listen to them. Value their opinions and their feedback.
I have seen this in action firsthand. Randy often tells the story of my predecessor, an employee who worked for him, left for a time, and then came back several years later. She suggested several ways we could improve our daily operations, such as adding a second computer monitor to our desks and accepting credit and debit card payments.
Today, two monitors are still sitting on both of our desks. That setup has been instrumental in streamlining our workflow, making it incredibly easy to compare a client’s prior year tax return on one screen to the current year on the other. And because of her suggestion regarding card payments, we now have a secure payment portal on the company website.
It is another John Maxwell quote in action (High Road Leadership, pg. 17): “You lose the best way when you must always have your way.” If Randy hadn’t approached hiring and management with an open mind and taken the advice of his employee, operations would never have improved the way they did.
A Foundation of Flexibility
Over the years, a number of people have asked me how I manage to still like the company after all these years, even during the chaos of tax season.
My answer always goes back to a specific day in 2018. An accountant (a mentor) and a college student (a mentee) walked into a coffee shop to discuss the student’s employment at this CPA firm. The meeting started with a transparent list of priorities from both parties.
Randy needed me for a set number of hours each week. I, on the other hand, was in school and preparing to become an undergraduate research assistant in an Autism Research Lab on campus. I needed time to do my coursework, time to get my lab hours in, time to work, and crucially, time to take care of myself.
Because we started with common ground and common goals, adjusting my work schedule each semester as my classes changed was never an issue. It is a system of flexibility and adaptability we still use to this day. In fact, the same collaborative approach has been the core reason behind recent improvements to our payroll and accounting ledger programs, now tailored to better suit our clients’ needs. Those improvements would have never happened if Randy and I hadn’t established our shared goals that fateful day in 2018.
Building Your Own Successful Team
That commitment to my success and well-being is the reason I am still here, almost eight years later. It is one of the primary reasons I am driven to become a CPA. I can’t possibly say “thank you” enough to him in this lifetime. But what I can do is take what I’ve learned, become that same caliber of boss and mentor, and pass it on.
If you want to create successful employees and, by extension, a successful small business, it starts with a few simple steps:
- Get to know your team.
- Ask what is important to them.
- When they give you feedback, truly listen. Are you making the changes they suggest, or are you sweeping their ideas under the rug?
When you treat your team as your most valuable asset, they will treat your business the exact same way. If you have questions on how to help your own employees thrive, or if you’re looking for guidance on managing the financial side of your growing team, reach out to us. Email sandccpa@gmail.com and let’s build your success story together.
