Ruth Pierce, CPA, had been in practice for over 20 years when she found out about Sterling in Glendale, CA. At the time, she was overloaded in an overstaffed practice.

"I was a partner at a regional accounting firm, where I had worked for 22 years. I was tired of the long hours and increasingly nasty office politics. As more partners came up through the ranks, followed by junior partners, the climate of the company changed.

"I was the best “practice developer” in the firm, meaning I generated the most revenue. I figured if I could make money for my employer’s firm, I could make money for my own. In the year 2000, I used my personal savings and a bank loan to open my own practice.

"Two years later, even though I had eight staff, I felt like I was doing just about everything myself. We were growing but we weren’t making enough to support eight people. Since I was too nice to fire anyone, I didn’t. Instead, my solution was to continue to pay the staff, but not pay myself. I was essentially running the practice so the staff could have a job; I was working for them.

"During this time, I received a mailer from Sterling. Whatever the message was, it struck a chord. I returned the card ... anything to add to the bottom line and work fewer hours. I watched Sterling’s practice management DVD where I learned about the right way to organize a practice. That’s when I had my “Aha!” moment; I realized I was “wearing too many hats” in my firm. It was then I decided to schedule a complimentary consultation with a Sterling consultant. I was impressed, but I was still skeptical. Over the past 30 years, I’d heard just about everything so I wasn’t going to spend money based on one testimonial I had read in a newsletter. I called several CPAs who subscribed to the Sterling program and asked them some pointed questions. At that point, I knew I wanted to do the program myself.

"When I signed on with Sterling, I was in the middle of negotiations with a sole practitioner to purchase his practice which would increase our gross revenue by 33% and add another employee. That meant there would be more pressing issues to address. The stress of our last tax season was also still a painful memory. Due to my busy schedule, I couldn’t go out to Sterling's Glendale premises for my training, so I had a consultant come to us instead.

Our Sterling consultant spent five and a half days with us. She trained the staff and helped us develop office policies, put together an organizational chart and assigned job functions to the staff so I wasn’t doing everything myself. This was the best thing I had ever done. Instead of me trying to implement a new program on my own, my staff and I learned the material at the same time. The office began to operate as a team.

I also discovered I had a capable office manager right under my nose and didn’t even know it. We promoted the staff member to office manager and I sent her out to Sterling for training. As a trained office manager, she took a huge load off my plate. She handled a lot of the day-to-day details of keeping the office running which freed me up to deliver more billable services and engage in higher-end planning to make sure we achieved our long-range goals.

I implemented Sterling’s statistical management system where we use statistics to manage and monitor the performance of the staff and the practice. When dealing with accountants, this system is the best invention yet. The feedback from my CPAs is they can deal with statistics. They understand statistics and the statistics don’t lie as long as we use them consistently to accurately measure progress toward our goals. What I really like about the system Sterling uses is that we can track statistics on a daily, weekly or monthly basis as well as quarterly and yearly. We can then use them to make decisions at any time rather than waiting till the end of the year to see how the financials turn out, or to tell an employee they need to improve their job performance.

As a client, I was eligible to attend Sterling’s regional workshops and brought my staff with me. The seminars helped me fine tune what we had implemented and I was able to meet with my consultant and Sterling’s CEO, too. I also liked being able to talk to other Sterling clients who were practice owners, but not competitors. I could ask them the type of questions I would never ask an attendee at a local seminar. I bring my staff to the Sterling workshops because it helps them to hear the management concepts explained by the pros which, in turn, helps them use the concepts on the job.

I’m very committed to giving to the community and I get a lot of referrals as a result. My philosophy is you get back from the community what you put in. I was proud to be the first woman president at our Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club. I was honored with the first “Outstanding Businesswoman” award in my area. I don’t mean to boast; I mention these accomplishments because the Sterling program helped me achieve the success I have today. Since my practice is running smoothly, I can put the time into these other activities without feeling stressed.

Today, I am freed up to do more of the type of work I love, to get new business and to focus on further development of off-season revenues such as forensic accounting, QuickBooks consulting and expert witness testimony. And if I don’t feel like working, I have the time to spend with my family or go on camping trips with my friends.

Before I started with Sterling in 2002, my billings were up by 6% over the previous year. Basically, I was just keeping up with inflation. In contrast, last year was our best year yet in terms of profit and cash flow. Since becoming a Sterling client, billings have increased by 40% and my net profit by 700%. Now I am making the money I should. This past tax season, I worked less hours, even though we were busier than ever before.

I wish I had found Sterling when I first opened my practice. They have a proven system.