The Swartz Report: Planning Meetings!
By Donald Swartz, President
Recently, we completed our annual fall planning meetings for both Swartz + Associates, Inc. and Indurante & Associates, Inc. I always look forward to these meetings as we look back on the successes (and challenges) over the past year and what we can do to continue to make a difference for our clients and operate as successful companies.
Resolving Appeals
2024 has been challenging in ways I have not experienced in most of my working career. While our pipeline is full and caseload is significant, the ability to resolve appeals from prior years, some dating back to 2020, remains tricky. Many of the appeals are backlogged at the respective State courts as hearing officers and judges are playing catch up from the pandemic. As the courts shut down for several months and/or years, the cases to be heard lay in waiting. It is difficult to discuss a 2023 or 2024 case when the jurisdiction is stilling trying to work through appeals in years prior.
Luckily, our clients are patient and understand the “long game” that has become necessary in an effort to achieve success.
Our employees with each company understand this and I am very appreciative of their patience as well. With this backdrop, our meetings were candid, engaging and as usual, a few excellent ideas were developed. It will be up to all of us to implement the strategies discussed and I am as excited as ever for the upcoming year.
Reimagining Existing Ideas and Plans
While we always want to grow our business, sometimes reimagining existing ideas and plans can be our most effective tool. Jason Terry, the “guru” of Blue Gurus led Swartz + Associates in a detailed two hour discussion of how to expertly manage and efficiently use data we already have in our possession; how to implement the tools we have in our possession to make us better and how to expand our reach.
In Las Vegas, the conversations were similar to what I described above and additionally, continue to find ways to efficiently handle the amount of data we collect on an annual basis from our clients.
As with most companies, change is a constant.
We will be without two employees as of year-end who have been with our respective companies for several years. They will be difficult to replace, but I am excited to present these opportunities to a new skill set with fresh ideas, fresh eyes and a fresh beginning. All of our managers and directors remain in place and are enthusiastically accepting the challenge of “what’s next?” What’s next in terms of employees, what’s next in our pursuit of clients, what’s next in succeeding for our clients and what’s next in our world of technology.
I am very excited to see what’s next for Swartz and Indurante and cannot wait to share our stories for the 2025 year.
Don