The case for keeping your staff under-utilized

What kind of work tends to fall under the “emergency services” category? 

Kramerica Business Solutions is a boutique accounting firm that specializes in strategic oversight. Typically, this is recurring work that is done monthly for clients that have high-stakes needs such as audit requirements, investors, loan requirements or preparation for the sale of a business. In addition to these monthly services, we have jumped in and provided what I refer to as "Emergency Services." Examples of these are maternity leave, death of an employee, sudden termination, illness, unexpected time off or covering an owner on leave.

Because these projects are urgent and high-stakes, how do you approach pricing?

Pricing for these services is generally what they would pay for this employee in their service. So, if they lost a Controller, we would set that at a monthly rate, likely $7,500+, as we also are walking in and doing triage. We often don't have passwords or the information we need to get our job done, and it requires us to get creative. Part of our role is to calm ownership/management and let them feel safe that we are the "experts" and to trust us. 

How do you handle marketing and customer acquisition?

We are typically getting a referral from someone we know for this type of work, so there is an implied trust in our firm. 

When marketing for these types of services, I encourage firms to steer clear of the end user or the business owner. It is not bad for them to understand these services are out there, but I don't feel they fully grasp the complexity or importance of the role. If they hear the solution, our firm, from a trusted outside source, the process is much smoother. We spend our time speaking to bankers, CPAs, advisory firms, insurance brokers, business brokers and firms that specialize in business audits. 

You mentioned balancing client emergencies with family obligations and existing workloads. How do you keep you and your team from burning out during these intense projects?

We manage the team and capacity by maintaining recurring revenue that covers the cost of the firm. The team spends a lot of time on continuing education and researching software to increase efficiency and provide more time for thinking and analysis. They work between 20 to 30 hours a week, so we always have time for projects if they seem to fit our client profile—which is a nice person who can pay. We shy away from anyone who gives us a bad feeling in our gut or who is rude. We don't need the business; we do it because we know we can help them get through a bad time, but I won't do it at the expense of the team.

(Image courtesy Candy Bellau)

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