VanderVeen & Goracke, LLC was formed in July 1999 by the merger of Scott VanderVeen and Rex Goracke. They have offices in two Southeast Nebraska cities along the Missouri River. Counting themselves, they have seven full time staff members and employ another three seasonal employees during tax season.

Their business is heavily based on tax and agricultural accounting and has branched off into financial services. Scott and Rex became Sterling clients in November of 2002 with a SPEEDO*. A reason commonly given for getting a SPEEDO is that it will get the staff on the same page as the owner. “Doing the SPEEDO allowed the partners and staff to learn the program together,” said Scott and Rex. "It gave us new management tools and got everyone to focus on firm goals, accountability and profitability."

When they started with Sterling they were looking at addressing two main areas. The biggest one was improving realization – they were putting in a lot of work but not seeing enough production. The other was opening up the communication in the office and getting everybody on the same page, moving toward the same goals. “We have achieved both of these,” they said.

“Before our SPEEDO consultant left, we had a budget and bonus system in place. That is something we always wanted to do but didn’t know how,” said Scott. "The org board was also very useful,” said Rex. “It has helped us departmentalize and emphasize each staff member’s strengths. The systems we now have in place to handle the tax side of the practice has freed our time to concentrate on delivering the more profitable financial planning services,” stated Scott.

They said, “One of the best things we’ve utilized from Sterling is having regular Executive Council meetings. We hadn’t realized it, but before, we would never meet unless there was a crisis or disagreement,” said Rex. “Now we meet every week.” As CPA’s and business owners, they never have a lack of things to do. The meetings help them prioritize their actions and build their practice around them. They also have marketing meetings and weekly staff meetings.

They both agreed that Executive Council and the improved communication allowed them to refine their goals. For example, they knew they wanted to be affluent, but never defined exactly what it meant. Sterling taught them how to break down these nebulous ideas into solid, achievable actions and goals.

“Our revenue has increased substantially as has our realization. Our goal is to get to 100% realization on an annual basis. We were at 98% last year and are looking to boost it even further this year. Our staff is more interactive than they used to be, more team focused.” 

Scott said, “With the way the office is running now, we no longer work on Sundays, and can take time off in the summer. We have confidence in each other and the staff that everything will be fine while one of us is gone. We can take vacations without feeling guilty about leaving a pile of incomplete projects.”

When asked if they could have done it all without Sterling, Rex and Scott said, “Maybe…but it would have taken us thirty years to get where we are now.” The sooner you implement the Sterling program, the sooner you can start enjoying the results. The SPEEDO is the fastest way to do that."

*SPEEDO = Staff Production Enhancement and Establishment by the Debug Officer