Ask any founder of a boutique professional services firm what sets them apart, and you’ll almost always hear the same thing: “Our people.” They’ll tell you they have senior talent. That their team has worked on the client side. That they bring unmatched experience to the table. And in many cases, they’re right. The pride is real, and the team is strong.
Sei-Wook Kim ran his agency for 16 years and never had to lay anyone off. Then, in year 17, he had to lay off 15% of his work force. Layoffs are a fact of life when you run a boutique, especially if you do not have much recurring revenue. Sei-Wook will share lessons learned from his experience. These lessons will help you execute a layoff if, or when, the time comes.
As boutiques scale the way decisions are made must change. Collective 54 Founder Greg Alexander shares why the decision-making leadership of the founder is diminished as boutiques scale.
Splitting the equity in a partnership is difficult. However, there is a proper way to do it that results in lots of wealth being created. Learn how to fix broken legacy partnership agreements as you grow, scale, and exit.
Designing the compensation system for Partners at boutique professional service firms requires special treatment. Partners are not like other employees and getting their pay system correct requires strategic thought.
Founders of boutiques often mistakenly equate the number of employees with success. However, lots of employees signal a poorly run firm. Collective 54 founder Greg Alexander makes the case for lean staffing and illustrates the impact to profitability.
As a firm scales its culture erodes. Bureaucracy creeps in as a firm gets larger. The owner shifts from an inspirational leader into a law enforcement officer which is not healthy. On this episode, we discuss how to build a great culture in professional services firms.
There is a dirty little secret about owners of boutique professional service firms. It is called the Hero Syndrome. If left unchecked, it will prevent you from scaling your firm. On this episode we discuss how to deal with this problem.
outique firms often grow but do not scale. Growth means more projects delivered with the same type of staff. If nothing changes, then the growth rate is proportional to the number of partner/owners required.
