Back in the 1990s, my CPA practice had taken over my life. Although there were just three of us, the practice was running me instead of me running the practice.

I was hopelessly behind in my work. I considered myself a strong leader, though, and devised a plan for motivating the staff. I announced if we got caught up in 90 days, I would pay bonuses of several thousand dollars. Although this seemed liked a generous offer to me, the staff were uninspired. Three months later, we were still behind. I decided a more attractive incentive was needed and devised a new offer—if we got caught up, no matter when it was, I would send the staff to Hawaii for a one-week vacation. This didn’t work either; the backlog continued.

I had been working long hours but I didn’t work on Sundays. That meant when I put in a 100-hour week, I did it in six days. Besides running the practice, I served on the boards of local civics groups, held a leadership position in my church, was an officer of a political group and had a wife and five kids at home. The stress was profound.

A young client of mine, a new optometrist, introduced me to Sterling’s consulting program. He had signed up as a client, sang their praises and recommended the program to me. I was skeptical, however. With my strong academic background in subjects such as forestry, physics and human resource management, my reaction was, “What could Sterling possibly teach me?” I searched for other options, one of which was a well-known consultant who wrote popular management books. He offered training courses but they fell way short of what Sterling seemed to offer.

As I watched my young client’s practice outperform the competition with Sterling’s help, my interest in Sterling intensified. In 1995, I contacted them and received an introductory consultation. When the consultant told me I was the biggest problem in my practice, that hit home. I signed up for Sterling’s consulting program and they helped me get my practice under enough control to go to their offices and get started.

At Sterling, I started the personalized consulting and management courses. I decided to immerse myself in the materials and if I were taught something I did not want to keep, I would simply leave it at the door. As it turns out, the course materials were so helpful, I extended my stay by four days to take additional courses. During my training, I walked around Sterling’s facilities to see if they practiced what they preached, and they did. I observed real-life examples of what I was studying in action. By the end of my training, I had left nothing at the door.

I also worked with my senior consultant. I was impressed at the accuracy of her understanding of my practice based on the information Sterling asked me to provide. I left their offices with a tailor-made plan of action to get the practice back on track.

When I returned home, I found stacks of work and mail on my desk. I knew if I were to take control of the practice, I would have to get to work on my program. I pushed back the stacks and began implementing Sterling’s communication system which enabled me to control the communications and workflow in the practice. This had an immediate effect on production, the flow of information and the morale of the staff.

With the help of my consultant, I assigned well-defined functions and responsibilities to the staff. As a result, everyone clearly knew what work needed to get done. The flow of work was, for the first time ever, controlled. Completed work arrived where and when it was supposed to.

Production increased dramatically. Our lowest-performing staff member tripled her production inside of six weeks. We then implemented a plan for staff training and everyone’s production went up.

Things took off from there.  Before Sterling, I had been growing 25% - 30% per year. With Sterling, I was growing 50% per year with profits doubling and less stress than ever before. Staff knew they were accountable and had to solve their own problems. We got caught up. The processes worked like clockwork. My primary tax preparer would sometimes say we could not possibly get through all of the work we had. My response was always the same, “Work the system!”

My practice had grown so much, I began looking for a partner. That is when an attractive real estate opportunity arose. I sold my practice and in 2005, took the plunge into real estate. Regrettably, the market began its decline a short time later. I had kept my distant accounting clients, however, and continued to practice from home on the side.

A couple of years later, some of my old clients began calling for help. They were unhappy with the service they were receiving from my former practice. Although I had once offered the new owner an introduction to Sterling, the offer was declined and the owner wound up leaving the practice. I gave these old clients a hand and started to grow a new practice. By 2011, I had moved from home into a new office and resumed my Sterling consulting. Again, I had dramatic, measurable success.

By the end of 2011, the revenues had increased by 40%. By the end of 2012, they had increased again by 35% and now, I am on track for another 50% increase in 2013.  But I also have time to spend with my family. When my kids need me, I can leave at a moment’s notice and help them while the practice continues to operate.

My only regret is that I hesitated before signing up with Sterling. I wish I had learned about them years earlier than I did. If I were to do it over again, I would not be so foolish. Sterling didn’t change my practice, they changed me—and that completely changed my practice and my life for the better.