Two years ago when I received a letter from another colleague recommending Sterling as the consulting firm to choose, I didn’t really understand the benefits of consulting. What I knew was that my 25-year accounting practice wasn’t as productive as it should be, so I sent in for my complimentary DVD and practice analysis. I figured, well, that’s easy enough.
Sterling gave me an audit—so to speak. Their external, objective and expert eye immediately detected what I couldn’t see—I was just about as busy as possible doing tax returns during “tax season;” they just wandered in the door. This huge percentage of my business underutilized my most highly trained and expensive staff during the rest of our year. Although this might seem natural to the profession, what was not obvious was what could be done about it.
This is where Sterling really shines and provided an enormous benefit. Sterling completely inspected my existing operation and produced the step-by-step solution that would work for my practice and my personal goals. Our growth was inhibited by a lack of time and efficiency in how we were operating.
My consultant helped me get everyone on the same page, realigning our operations and better utilizing my staff. My most highly trained staff now provide oversight to support staff who have been given greater responsibilities. We also found ways to reduce doing work twice by improving how clients provide data. Things have smoothed out; everyone now has more time.
One of the most amazing tools is the Sterling system of performance statistics. I can compare this year to last. I can look across the production of each area and see for myself what causes things to go up, or down, and know precisely what to do. My collections are up 20 percent.
In my years in this profession, I’ve not found another group who can do what Sterling can do: solve working thousands of hours a day, increase productivity, and generally smooth things out while we improve the quality of service to our clients—and all this without adding staff.
Sterling has made an incredible difference. I could probably retire if I wanted, but at this point, I am just happy as a clam and would love to see others of my profession equally happy.
John Roesch, EA CFP
