BCP Conference Leads to New Directions for Virginia CPA Firm

Participating in RAN ONE’s Business Consulting and Coaching Program (BCP) can be a life-changing experience. Just ask Rick Wildes.

Wildes, a partner in a three-partner, five-staff accounting firm in Richmond, Va., attended the BCP conference in Phoenix in November 2004, where teams of practitioners work through actual case studies using RAN ONE’s online tool and present proposals to potential business advisory “clients.”

“It was a real mind shift for me,” says Wildes. “I’m the kind of person who likes helping people solve problems and making things better for others. BCP gave me a chance to do that for a week. It was very different from the compliance work that I had been used to doing for my clients.”

Wildes returned to his firm – Wildes, Stevens & Company – with a renewed sense of purpose. He immediately put one tip from BCP conference into action by cultivating relationships with “centers of influence” – local bankers and attorneys.

One of those attorneys told Wildes about a professional services firm that was looking for some business planning advice. That’s all Wildes had to hear. He introduced himself to the firm and soon had the opportunity to conduct an off-site business-planning retreat using the RAN ONE “Rocket,” which provides a framework for segmenting the different areas of a business. The Rocket starts by examining a company’s vision, strategy, structure, and culture. Then it looks at products and services, marketing and sales, people, systems and processes, and finance.

“We’re now in the process of working with the client to implement some of the plans we made at the retreat,” he says.

Participating in the BCP conference and shifting his firm’s focus to more business advisory work has already started to pay off for Wildes. In addition to winning more than $15,000 in ongoing strategic consulting and tax-related fees from this one new client, the composition of the firm’s practice has changed dramatically, as Wildes and his partners have sought out – and won – a number of other business advisory engagements.

“We used to generate only 5% of our fees from business advisory services,” says Wildes. “Now that percentage has increased to 25% as our revenue base has grown. But more than that, I’ve gone from playing a support role with my clients to taking a proactive role as an advocate and problem solver.”

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