Two years ago, Jim Whittenburg knew things had to get better in his practice. “I was working all the time,” he says, “but I was not making enough to support myself and my family the way I wanted to. I was spending sixty to seventy hours a week in the office but I wasn’t making it. There had to be a way to make more from that much work. The office was so unorganized; I was losing things constantly.”
When Jim heard about Sterling, it was clearly what he needed. “I was sent a copy of CPA Today and I sent for the Sterling video, and by the time I’d finished watching it, I knew that with Sterling I would get better organization. And the average increase in income that they predicted for accountants was certainly attractive.
“When I arrived in Glendale for my Sterling training, I had already sent in the requested data about my office. I sat down with the guy who would become my personal consultant and he knew just where to look and he was able to really see what was going on with my practice from the information I had sent in earlier.”
Jim got a custom-tailored set of courses, designed to give him the skills he needed to sort out his practice’s problems.
“I went with an open mind, with the idea that they would be able to help me. And they did. By the time I started course, after meeting with my consultant, I knew what I needed to learn.
“And a couple of the courses, which were most important, helped me to take a look at myself. Sterling gave me tools to use at the office and tools to use on me personally. And that was necessary because all the lost paperwork, all the inefficiency, in some ways were symptoms of the ways in which I was operating.
“From the information on the courses, it was very clear to me that there were better ways to operate, and in such a small office, if there were problems, I must have something to do with them.
“So when I got back, I started to operate on statistics, using them to track results. I figured out what the functions and the statistics were for my secretary/receptionist. And personally I got everything on my desktop filed so I could find them—because I had been keeping them in different places so I could find them. Then I wrote up a ‘battleplan,’ to organize my time and attention. At first, the piles started to creep back onto my desk, but I put in Hubbard’s three-basket communication system and then arranged for somebody to file the things which accumulated. And the piles stopped,” says Jim.
“I was organizing my time and I solved my lack of time, which had been going over into my personal life. I got into much better communication with my wife and kids.
“I also added personnel. Sterling gave me some advice on this and I started with one person working as a bookkeeper and as a receptionist. A year later my average monthly production has gone up by almost 70%, and my tax season was way up and I didn’t work any more hours. But what I think is really impressive is that the year before I had outsourced a lot of the returns, and paid 40% of the fee to the other person. So I think the 70% increase is even more impressive.
“The other thing I did,” says Jim, “is, this year I did what Sterling said, and I got referrals! The year before, I didn’t ask for referrals, as I didn’t know how to and I didn’t get any.
“Things are still going up. Even though this June was up 70% over the previous June, I certainly don’t believe I’m applying the Hubbard management technology as well as I could. But when I apply more of it, things get better.
“Sterling has helped me set a growth pattern, which I will continue.”
