Jcs Hicks Management Consultants, Inc. Case Study

JCS Hicks Management Consultants, Inc.

999 Broadway Road

Baltimore, MD  21201

March 9, 2014

Amanda Smith, CPA

Smith’s Accounting and Tax Service

20000 Smith Road

Baltimore, MD   21222

Dear Ms. Smith,

Thank you for agreeing to accept our services to assist and guide your business in the direction of success.   After meeting with you and getting a better understanding of the problems your company has been faced with over the past year; we may have the solutions to solve your problems and to get you back on the right path.  Starting a business can be challenging for anyone to accomplish if you do not have the knowledge and/or assistance from a consultant to help you get started.  The feeling of owning your business is very rewarding and should not feel like a failure when you have problems that occur and do not know how to solve them; which can be resolved with the knowledge of knowing the core management functions for operating a business.

Operating and managing a business has the responsibility of followi9ng these core principles to become successful: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.  There are business owners who think that managing a business is simple; but have found it to be very challenging and frustrating when they are faced with unexpected problems that are not easy to resolve.

Planning is the most important first step in establishing a business. The vision, goals, and objectives should be very clear when planning your business.  You stated that your mission is to provide accounting and tax services to small business owners and individuals in your community.   Here are some suggestions we feel will help you and get your business back on the right track of being a success.  The experience that you received working at your last position helped you to establish skills needed as a manager of audits and tax services but did not factor in the demands you would be facing day-to-day running a business and dealing with your staff and clients.  Your motto “Have laptop, will travel” gives an individual the impression that they do not need to come into your office for services; you will come to them and provide the services to please and make it convenient.   We suggest amending your services to state that you will make a “house-call” only during off-peak times of the year.

Organizing is the next step a manager establishes to make sure the business functions smoothly day-to-day.  Designing individual job duties and responsibilities makes it clear for every individual in the business to understand their reasonability in getting the job accomplished.  Giving Lisa the responsibility of completing the office duties as well as hiring the accountants may have jeopardized the business because Lisa does not have the training and skills in hiring the proper accountants you needed for the business.  The accountants recommended by Lisa may have worked in larger corporations where filing extensions were the norm and did not affect their business.  Our suggestion of using a recruiting company may be the solution for you.  Job-Hunt says “establishing a long-term relationship with a recruiting company” allows you the peace of mind that they will recommend the ‘perfect fit employee’ for your business.  

Leading is the next step in managing your business, but could be the most important function for your business to strive and establish itself as one of the best accounting services.  A leader must have the ability to communicate how important their duties are in providing these services to their customers; and to motivate their subordinates in providing these exceptional services.  Also leading by example will show how dedicated you are providing the best service possible.  Although you and your subordinates had a staff meeting every Monday morning and understood exactly what and where everyone was in accomplishing their duties for the week there still were problems occurring that caused delays and extensions to be granted to clients because of miscommunication.  If you do not allow yourself time to  meet with each accountant individually and check on their workload; answer any questions they may have; make sure that proper paperwork or assignments are completed correctly you will have major problems and errors that will cause you and your subordinates to become frustrated in doing their jobs.  Are your subordinates showing little or no feeling of ‘job satisfaction’ or ‘organizational commitment’ (Chp. 2).  Your subordinates may have the attitude of ‘this is only a job’, and may not have an attachment of being committed to perform above and beyond the call.  A leader must have communication skills that they can project to their subordinates and say exactly what they mean making their points understandable.  If overtime the goals and objectives have not been met by your subordinates this will show that what the leader communicated was not taken seriously (Kumar).