The Practitioner: Pruning clients, growing staff numbers

The Practitioner: Pruning clients, growing staff numbers

Not so easy come easy go for the Practitioner, as a troublesome client is finally given the heave-ho, but a new staff member is welcomed on board

I OFTEN reminisce about my days at university. In our first week, besides getting extremely drunk and socialising on a nightly basis, we were given several lessons of induction. One lesson in particular is as fresh in my mind 20 years on as it was then. In a nutshell, the message of the lesson was ‘you move towards what you expect,’ and ‘you get out what you put in’.

I regularly refer back to the first message, but this past few weeks has seen both of them become a reality.

The client of which I’ve spoken about frequently in the past few blogs has finally got the message and moved onto another mug, sorry, I mean accountant.

I’ve been moving towards it in my recent actions and have been putting very little into the relationship.

I’m fortunate to have a handful of clients who are more like best friends and they have advised me that if I don’t show him any ‘love’ he will soon get the message and look elsewhere.

The slight downside is that the firm are owed the best part of £5k, and I have little hope of ever seeing this get paid, despite promises from the client that he will ensure every penny gets paid.

On a brighter note we have recruited another senior member of the team. In my mind for the past few weeks I’ve been moving towards recruitment, and finally placed an advert a couple of weeks ago.

Before finally deciding on the successful candidate we had to wade through a pile of CV’s from a wide range of candidates. Despite stipulating we needed candidates with experience of working in a practice we received CVs from an air hostess, plenty of burger flippers, and the best of all – a train conductor!

I’m not ashamed to say I’ve not replied to all the CVs I received. They obviously can’t read so will probably take my non-reply as an invitation to attend an interview…

The Practitioner’s uncensored thoughts come from within their own practice – having left a regional firm in the heart of England

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