Our managing partner and I met with an accountant this morning. The purpose of this meeting was to fire me, so to speak. Since our company started in February, I have been over IT, finance and general administration in addition to maintaining a vibrant workers’ comp and special needs practice. In the beginning, it was a one hour per week proposition. Now, as we’ve grown to five times our original size, it has become more of a 1-2 day per week thing. This has taken away from my ability to work on my cases and has, indirectly, cost us money due to decreased billings. The general admin and IT aren’t major issues and don’t consume a lot of time but the finance was becoming a bear. Additionally, due to the number of accounts and total dollars we were working with, I really felt like I was getting in over my head. We now have professional help to manage our day to day finances and I can do what I’m trained to do, manage cases and consult.
It can be a difficult thing to let go. When we first discussed the idea I will confess that my initial reaction was negative largely because I didn’t want to give up the power of the purse. Gradually, I came to realize that I was a) over my head and b) hurting myself and our firm by not ceding the daily financial stuff to a professional. Over time, my attitude changed. When we left the accountant today, I felt like I had a 16 ton weight taken off of me. But the decision was much easier because I came to it myself and was not forced into it.
Here are my questions then- are we introspective enough to realize it’s time to let go or do we need someone to push us toward the light (so to speak). Not necessarily make the decision for us, but point us in the right direction. And, are we mature enough to, when the time comes to relinquish, do so with a good spirit and attitude and assist the person who follows us and set them up to succeed.
Discuss amongst yourselves…
Things You See Around the Office
Originally uploaded by Mr Lunatic Fringe
I found this to be incredibly funny. If this were the case in my home/office, Charity would have killed me several times over.
I haven’t had any great revelations to share so I thought I’d just bring everyone up to speed on our life. My brother, the air traffic controller, is moving to Georgia tomorrow to take a position at the Atlanta approach facility. It’s located at Peachtree Airport (not Hartsfield) and handles traffice coming into and out of metro Atlanta. There is a shortage of controllers there so the FAA made him a very nice offer to transfer. The sick thing is that he retires in seven years and he’s only 42. Yes, I hate him.
My sister and her husband were at the Texas Camp Meeting last week. If you saw them, tell them to call as they don’t call much any more. Since Julie reads this blog, call! I’m coming to Texas next month and there may be dinner involved for you. Yes people, we don’t text or IM, we use my web page to communicate.
On the home front, our church is getting ready for VBS starting tonight. Charity was at the church until late last night and most of yesterday afternoon helping to set up. I was in charge of dinner which means it was deferred to the good people at Subway. Michael and Gabri are really looking forward to VBS at our church. They did VBS at Faith Lutheran last week were they (and Becky) went to pre-school. I have been buried in work and, while I am not in Fort Worth today as was originally planned, I am going the week after I get done with camp. Happy day! I am going to New York next week (Long Island, not the city) and may be taking my deferred trip to West Virginia that week as well. I also have trips to New York City and Houston in the next month or so. Oh, also there is quizzing finals this weekend and camp is the week of July 7. I told Charity on Sunday that this may be my last go-around with camp due to the business of my scheduled. She said it probably wasn’t. A titanic battle of wills awaits.
The quick updates became somewhat lengthy. Hopefully, I will be blessed with insight over the next day or so. Have a great week.
